Mastermind Behind Viral Rhea Ripley Spot In WWE Finally Revealed
A female WWE superstar and Rhea Ripley created a moment that fans won’t soon forget.
Rhea Ripley is the WWE Women’s Champion who captured the title from Jade Cargill at WrestleMania 40. Ripley has had a lot of championship success at WrestleMania in her career, and now she’s a 4-time WWE Women’s Champion on the main roster.
Before succeeding on the main roster, Ripley was also the NXT Women’s and NXT UK Women’s Champion earlier in her career.
On the September 16th, 2025 edition of WWE NXT, Rhea Ripley was back for the NXT Homecoming episode as she teamed up with Stephanie Vaquer and Lyra Valkryia as they defeated Fatal Influence’s Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Jazmyn Nyx.
During that tag team match, Vaquer did her popular “Devil’s Kiss” knee-smashing move, and Ripley did it at the same time on another opponent. The fans went crazy for it while the announcer, Booker T, shouted about it during commentary. It became a viral moment, given how widely it was shared on social media at the time.
When Stephanie Vaquer spoke to Chris Van Vliet about the double Devil’s Kiss spot, she credited Ripley for doing it so well.
“That was so funny. She’s so nice. She asked me first, I have an idea. I’m like, yeah. She said, “It’s okay for you? She asked me. I say, of course, I mean, it’s an honor. And she said, can you show me how? And I say, Yeah, sure. She does it perfectly.”
Vaquer would go on to discuss performing the Devil’s Kiss in WWE.
“You know what? Before WWE, I did that move for a long time. But when I did that move before WWE, was little different than now. When I sign with WWE, I think, Okay, I want to stop doing that move for many reasons. I think sometimes people take that move different ways, and I don’t like that.
In NXT one day, and we were training, and I showed that move, and the coach is saying, No, that’s good, people know that move and people like that move. I’m thinking yeah, but I don’t know why I don’t like it anymore. I don’t want to do that move because I hate what people say, it’s just because that move and like no people can sometimes understand that move, and I’m gonna start to do it again. I feel good because Booker T make that move so people love this move, so I’m starting to love this move again, because Booker T make me feel like that.”
Rhea Ripley Dealing With Fatal Influence On WWE SmackDown
On the first WWE SmackDown episode after WrestleMania, Rhea Ripley did a promo about how she’s going to be a fighting champion and wanted anybody to step up to challenge her.
That’s when former 2-time NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne and her Fatal Influence allies, Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid, interrupted Ripley. A verbal exchange led to a match.
When it looked like Ripley was going to hit Riptide on Jayne to win the match, Henley attacked Ripley for the DQ finish. After the match, the trio of Henley, Reid, and Jayne attacked Ripley, while nobody tried to help Ripley. The fans were booing loudly. Jayne hit her Rolling Encore elbow smash on Ripley to put her down.
Later in the show, Ripley talked with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss backstage since both of them were attacked by Fatal Influence. It looks like it will set up a 6-woman tag team match soon.
@wwenxt Double Devil’s Kiss! 🙌 #WWENXT #WWE #StephanieVaquer #RheaRipley