Vince McMahon clearly saw Rhea Ripley differently than the rest of the WWE Universe when she was called up from NXT in 2021.
RAW Superstar Rhea Ripley was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet. While discussing her call-up to the WWE main roster in 2021, Ripley revealed Vince McMahon didn’t know what to do with her because of her look and saw her as a heel when everyone insisted to him that the fans loved her.
“And then as soon as I came to the main roster, it was in COVID so Vince (McMahon) didn’t know what to do with me,” Rhea Ripley revealed. “He didn’t know if I was face or heel. And he’s like, ‘Well, she looks like a heel’ and everyone was like, ‘You don’t understand, she’s a babyface. People actually like her.’ He’s like, ‘Nah, she’s a heel.’
Being paired with Dominik Mysterio
“So then going out there and being so confused on what I’m doing but not having that crowd reaction to actually feed off of and prove my point that I was a babyface at the time, it made it really hard. Then after that, the trial and error with the tag team stuff. But also holding on to who I was in NXT. I feel like when I got partnered with Dom (Mysterio), I could actually blossom a little bit into something different — instead of being the hard-ass all the time, I was Mami.” [H/T: Fightful]
Rhea Ripley will face Raquel Rodriguez in a street fight tomorrow at WWE Night of Champions.
What do you make of Rhea Ripley’s comments? Are you surprised Vince McMahon didn’t know what to do with her on the main roster? Let us know your overall thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
