In March 2024, Rhea Ripley and Nia Jax broke the internet as footage from their match at a WWE house show went viral thanks to Ripley giving Jax a Stinkface in the corner. The clip circulated all over social media, garnering millions of views from fans around the world, with many of said fans commenting on how they wanted to be in Jax's position. Ripley was asked about this spot during a recent appearance on Chris Van Vliet's "Insight"podcast, where she revealed that the spot was actually Nia's idea.
"I mean it was going to be big but that s**t exploded, like it wasn't even my idea...it was Nia's idea guys. She's like 'yeah, and then you stink face me,' I'm like '...bet, okay, if you want,'" Ripley said, revealing that she wanted to pull her gear up higher in the same way Rikishi used to during the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras. However, for all of the love the spot garnered, Ripley received a lot of hate over the clip by people believing she was giving women's wrestling a bad reputation, but that didn't seem to phase the former WWE Women's World Champion.
"It still pops up on my Twitter. It's wild, I got so much publicity off that, but I also got so much negativity, and I was like 'guys you need to calm down.' People just like saying that I'm taking the women's division back 20 years, and I'm like 'that's not what's happening.' It's a fun moment, and it's a house show, am I not allowed to have fun? If it was anyone else you'd be supporting it. I feel like people love to hate Rhea Ripley, and you know the more you talk about me, the more you're acting like a fan, so continue talking...and it wasn't even my idea, like Nia wanted to take my ass to her face."
Receiving messages, both good and bad, from fans is one thing, but there are certain individuals who take things a step too far. Liv Morgan had a stalker who was arrested outside of the WWE Performance Center, a social media account was made dedicated entirely to wanting Roxanne Perez to be killed, and Sonya Deville had someone break into her house and threaten to kidnap her.
Rhea Ripley's fans are some of the most dedicated in all of wrestling, but she revealed that back in February, a fan kept coming to her house while she and her husband, Buddy Matthews, were in Australia as Matthews was wrestling at the AEW Grand Slam Australia event and the couple were going to celebrate their honeymoon afterwards. This all sounded off to Ripley, but it was made even scarier when the fan was caught on her doorbell camera.
"We looked at the Ring camera, and there's some chick at our door. I didn't think anything of it, and I was like 'why does she keep ringing the doorbell and then just like standing there for eternity?' Then we had our Australian friends who live near us and they came to pick up our mail and they go 'This is for Rhea Ripley, I think it's fan mail,' and I was like 'Oh no, who the hell has my address?' That's just something that people shouldn't be doing, that's kind of crossing the line, like we are normal people outside of work, and we like our privacy, we like have to our normal humanity. But I went back and I watched the Ring doorbell, and this chick was like she just came out of the movie Smile, like she was, I'm sorry if you're watching this lady, but you were terrifying."
Please credit "Insight" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
