Why Rhea Ripley Thinks Fondly Of WWE’s Only WrestleMania With No Fans
Rhea Ripley thinks having a match at the only WrestleMania with no fans is an accomplishment in her career.
Over the last five years, Rhea Ripley has established herself as one of the best and most dominant female superstars in WWE.
Rhea Ripley is a three-time Women’s Champion who will be going for another title at WrestleMania 41 when she challenges Iyo Sky for the Women’s World Title in a match that also includes Bianca Belair. All three women are considered babyfaces, but “Mami” Ripley clearly has the most support from the fans.
The first WrestleMania that Ripley competed in was the most bizarre one of them all – WrestleMania 36 in 2020. That was the only WrestleMania with no fans in attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world less than a month before that WrestleMania took place. We were forced to stay at home, avoid others, and hope we didn’t get the virus. Meanwhile, WWE continued to put shows on as best they could.
WrestleMania 36 mostly took place at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. Ripley was just 23 years old at the time, and she walked in as the NXT Women’s Champion, facing the more experienced Royal Rumble winner, Charlotte Flair.
During an interview with The Toronto Sun’s No Holds Barred, Rhea Ripley talked about her first WrestleMania experience.
“Yeah, it’s a wild thing to think and then say out loud, no fans in attendance. My first WrestleMania, it was just like a wild mixture of emotions because I remember going to the stadium and walking around and looking at everything and I was getting so excited.
I was like, ‘my family’s gonna be here’. Then obviously everything got shut down. So my build-up to Wrestlemania was kind of like very strange and my emotions were kind of everywhere because I was so excited to one, be a part of WrestleMania. Two, this was like the biggest moment of my career, like at that current time. But then to have it kind of all be ripped away and back at the Performance Center, which is where I started training here in America with WWE, it kind of just felt very strange to me.
It didn’t feel real. Obviously, it’s still my first Mania. I still want to go out there. I want to have like an amazing match. I want to have fun and take everything in that’s obviously going on in the ring only because that’s only what we had.”
“It Was So Awkward” – Rhea Ripley Recalling WrestleMania 36
A big part of pro wrestling is how a crowd reacts to the wrestlers, and for wrestlers, they do their best to play off the crowd because without the fans, it’s hard to put on a show. Ripley would go on to talk about how awkward it was at WrestleMania 36.
“I remember going out there and like just doing my entrance and even that in itself was so awkward. It was so awkward because like it was at a time where you can’t, take forever to walk through the curtain because there’s no fans.
So you literally have to go as soon as your music hits so they have something to see watching on their TVs, and for me, I have a certain point in my song where I go out there, especially with my older song as well, which was a good five to 10 seconds before I went out.
So walking out straight away was very… it threw me off because then I had to just pace on the stage and wait for my stomp and then awkwardly walk down to the ring to absolutely no high fives, no cheers, no nothing. Just Charlotte looking back at me and I’m just like, ‘oh no’.
But it was fun and it was a memory and it’s a part of history that I can never erase and no one can ever erase. I was a part of the first and only WrestleMania with absolutely zero fans. So I’ll take it as an accomplishment.”
The Flair-Ripley ended with Flair walking away with Ripley’s NXT Women’s Title. When the two women had a rematch at WrestleMania 39 in 2023, Ripley bested Flair in an outstanding match that saw Ripley leave with the SmackDown Women’s Title.
It has been confirmed by WWE that the Iyo Sky-Rhea Ripley-Bianca Belair triple threat match will take place at WrestleMania 41 on Sunday, April 20th.