Rhea Ripley doesn’t think you can make it alone in WWE anymore. For years, success in professional wrestling meant protecting your spot and looking out for yourself.
Ripley understands why it worked that way, but she doesn’t think it’s functional now.
“I feel we’ve gotten to a point within this industry where it is about working together,” Ripley told CBS Sports. “Back in the day, I see why there were so many arguments, people not getting along and fights. Everyone was pretty much out there trying to succeed by themselves.
“In this business, you can’t really be super selfish. It’s a team effort. You have to go out there and work as a team.”
That mindset has followed her to the top of the company.
Few women are on Ripley’s level. She’s among WWE’s most popular superstars, boasting the largest Instagram following of any full-time woman on the roster. Her TikTok following is larger than that of any active wrestler on the roster besides Logan Paul.
A commercial and critical darling, the three-time world champion also shares the record for the single longest women’s title reign in WWE history.
Ripley’s success is the perfect recipe for an inflated ego, but she believes that a rising tide lifts all boats. After all, what purpose does “The Eradicator” serve with no one to annihilate?
“If you make your opponent look like a piece of shit and you lose to them, you lost to a piece of shit,” Ripley said. “If you beat them, congratulations, you beat a piece of shit. Well done.”
Ripley, one of WWE’s most dominant stars, is always looking to the future. She’s thinking about what comes next and who comes with her. In her mind, it shouldn’t be lonely at the top.
“For me, I think I’m a good representation of that,” she said. “I’m always there to try and help the person I’m in the ring with. I try to vouch for them whenever I can.
“I’m able to get myself into this spotlight where I’m not looked at as one of, if not the top, woman in WWE. My job is to bring everyone else up because I’ll need some competitors that I need to step in the ring with, where it looks like a real fight.”
That philosophy showed up in her recent match with Giulia, one of Japan’s most acclaimed female wrestlers. While Giulia has twice won the women’s United States title in her first year on the main roster, she’s a step below the main event and absent from WrestleMania.
“She’s the champion, but she also hasn’t been given long matches on the main roster and that spotlight to show that she can really shine,” Ripley said. “I’m going to go out there, bust my ass, and make sure she looks good. Hopefully, that opens up opportunities.”
Her match with Giulia was undoubtedly memorable. In fact, one moment from their Feb. 20 encounter was the biggest talking point from SmackDown. During the match, Ripley took a brutal-looking stomp from Giulia. The subsequent replays looked even worse.
“It looked so brutal,” Ripley said. “Watching it back, I thought, ‘Oh! That looks good.'”
Fortunately, Ripley only suffered surface-level damage from the nasty sequence.
“I don’t know if I’m so acclimated to being hit in the face, but it wasn’t that bad,” she said. “Yeah, it looked back and gave me a black eye, but I have a hard face. I turned my face just in time. I wasn’t going to break my nose again.”
With Giulia in the rearview mirror, the stage gets bigger.
Ripley will challenge WWE women’s champion Jade Cargill at WrestleMania 42 on Sunday, one of the marquee matches on the card. The two have gone back and forth on social media leading up to the event, sparking speculation about real tension backstage.
Ripley acknowledged what Cargill brings to the table despite their potential differences. Like Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar, which takes place the same night, Ripley vs. Cargill jumps off the poster.
“You look at her, and you can tell she looks like a superstar,” Ripley said. “She fits in very well in the WWE, especially at Mania. It has a very big match feel when you put someone who looks like Jade against someone who looks like me.”
The polarity between them might stem from their roots. Their paths to the world title match at WrestleMania could not be more different. Cargill, a collegiate basketball star, has only wrestled on national stages. The world has watched her every success and failure.
“To learn this craft on the road, on live television, I have to give her props,” Ripley said. “That would be very daunting and scary. For me, I’ve gone through this for years. I’ve been wrestling since I was 16. I’ve been through everything.”
Ripley took a more traditional path to the top. Her resume is long, built step by step.
“I started on the independent scene in Australia,” she said. “I made it to WWE. I went through NXT UK, NXT, Raw and now SmackDown. I know the grueling task that comes with this business.
“She knows a different kind of grueling task. It’ll be very intriguing to see how WrestleMania pans out. We’re two different dogs in this fight.”
