Rhea Ripley ended up competing at WrestleMania 41, but she did worry that it wouldn’t happen.
Iyo Sky defeated Ripley and Bianca Belair to retain the Women’s World title at WrestleMania 41. The match was highly praised by many wrestling fans and pundits, including F4WOnline.com’s Dave Meltzer, who gave it a five-star rating.
During a conversation with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Ripley mentioned that her back was hurting in the ring. Ripley believes she was hurt taking a backdrop onto a table during her Last Man Standing match against Raquel Rodriguez at NXT New Year’s Evil 2021, and it’s been an issue since then.
“After that, my lower back was never the same. But I mean, I do whatever I can to try and make it better. I have a masseuse, Matthew, come over and he works on it. He helps stretch me out, and puts my hips back in line pretty much, and just fixes all that. And thank God for him that he comes over to help. Because sometimes it gets really bad. I didn’t think that I would be able to wrestle at WrestleMania 41,” Ripley shared.
Why did Rhea Ripley think she was going to miss WrestleMania 41?
Ripley continued, sharing that her back was in such bad shape that she didn’t think she could wrestle. However, her masseuse got her in good enough shape for that night, although she’s still having issues with it.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to compete because my back was so bad leading up to it. The two nights beforehand, I got [my masseuse] Matthew to come to my room, and he worked on me the night before the Hall of Fame and the night of Hall of Fame. I was like, I need you to make sure I can walk tomorrow.
“He worked on me those two nights, and it loosened completely just in time for the match. Then after the match, it was okay, and then, slowly, because I’ve been wrestling more, it’s just slowly tightens up, but that’s because I just don’t stretch on my own, so that’s my fault as well. It gets really bad. I don’t know if it’s a sciatic thing or whatnot, or just my body in itself, the shape of my body and how I’m put together. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s something. But it does go down, and it definitely revs up sometimes, and sometimes it’s just bearable.”
Ripley has been able to remain in the ring as she works through her back issues. Her last match was a Queen Of The Ring 2025 First Round loss to Roxanne Perez. Kairi Sane and Liv Morgan were the other two participants in the fatal four-way match. Her next match will be a Street Fight at Crown Jewel 2025. Fittingly enough, her opponent is Raquel Rodriguez.
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