Rhea Ripley Liked That Women’s Royal Rumble Match Went After The Men
The winner of the Women’s Royal Rumble Match, Rhea Ripley, thinks that it was a good thing for the women’s match to be after the men this year.
Rhea Ripley had an incredible performance in the Women’s Royal Rumble match by lasting 1:01:08 according to WWE.com, which is a record for women’s Royal Rumble matches.
The match began with Ripley as the first entrant in the match followed by Liv Morgan. There were 28 women in the match, but Ripley and Morgan lasted all the way until the end with Ripley last eliminating Morgan to get the win.
In previous years, other than 2018 when the first Women’s Royal Rumble took place, the Women’s Royal Rumble match opened the show or was on before the Men’s Royal Rumble match. Since WWE opted to go with the Roman Reigns-Kevin Owens match in the main event, they put the Men’s Royal Rumble match (won by Cody Rhodes) on first this year.
The placement of the Women’s Royal Rumble match saw them go second last, right before the main event although there was also a musical performance by Hardy in between.
During an interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, Ripley spoke about the competition between the women and men in WWE.
“So I’ve watched bits and pieces of [the Men’s Royal Rumble]. Obviously, I was out there for a little bit as well. I got Speared on the concrete. Thank you, Beth [Phoenix]. But you know, I got up, and I won. So it doesn’t matter.”
“There’s always competition between us and the men. Normally, the women were always on first, so the thing that we say is ‘follow that,’ but we were on second this time, so obviously, we’ve been doing it right the last few years because we’ve made it down the card. We got to go on semi-main, really put on a show, and get the time and just go out there and show everyone what the women can do.”
At the Royal Rumble press conference, Ripley also talked about how she dislocated her knee during the match, but it went back in and she is doing just fine. She also expanded further on her history of knee issues.
“I just have knee problems. I’ve always had them growing up playing soccer. My kneecap just sometimes slides out of place, and it sort of goes to the side. Sometimes it will go to the very back of my knee, and then I just have to straighten it, and it goes back. It hasn’t done it for years. So I don’t know what made it do it. I guess I haven’t drank enough water today or eaten enough. Yeah, it slid out for a little bit, but I popped it back in straight away.”
Since she won the Royal Rumble match, Rhea Ripley is going to WrestleMania where she will get a championship match against either Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair or Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair.