It is a well-known fact that most professional wrestlers do not use their real names in the wrestling world, especially in WWE. The wrestlers and the creative team take some time to work on an in-ring name. Recently, former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley shared what the original pitches for her WWE in-ring name were.
Rhea Ripley recently sat down for an interview with Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast. During the interview, the Eradicator shared what her inspiration was for her in-ring name.
“So when I first started, they asked me for five combinations of names, and I went through trying to make combinations of names that I liked from either band members or just strong women in general.”
Ripley also revealed that prior to WWE, she was going by her real name Demi Bennett.
“Demi Bennett, which is my name. I don’t know why. They just didn’t want to change my name. They’re like, ‘Yeah, Demi Bennett is good. It’s a good wrestler name.’ It’s really not. I’m glad because some people have three, four wrestling names, and I’m glad that I just have two.”
How did the name ‘Rhea Ripley’ pair up together?
The former WWE Women’s World Champion also shared the story of how she got to pair up the names Rhea and Ripley.
“This is a long time ago. I really like the name Isla. I love the name Isla. And that was one that I didn’t actually pull from anything, but it was Isla Radke, because at that time, I really loved Falling in Reverse and Ronnie Radke. He’s the main singer, so I loved his last name, just because it was so different. You don’t really hear Radke, especially not in Australia. I don’t know about America, but I like that one. And then there was something Ashby. I can’t remember what the start of that one was. It was something Ashby. And [Alan] Ashby was the guitarist for Of Mice and Men.
“And then Rhea Ripley came from, Rhea is a Goddess’s name. And I was like, she’s cool. I like that. And then Ripley came from Alien [Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver]. She was a badass, and I was like, I want to be like that. I want to be a badass. They just mesh so well together with the RR, it just always works out. I mean, you see Roman Reigns, Ronda Rousey, Ruby Riott, Raquel Rodriguez, I don’t know what it is, it just works. But yeah, Rhea Ripley just stuck, and we were getting ready for the first Mae Young Classic, and I think it was Bloom, I believe, just walked past and he goes, ‘Rhea Ripley.’ I go ‘I guess so?’ I got no choice. I sent you my five names. You guys pick one,” Rhea Ripley said.
