WWE’s Rhea Ripley Had Emotional Moment With AEW Star At Double Or Nothing
Rhea Ripley was backstage at AEW Double or Nothing and a former WWE superstar recalls what it was like seeing her at the event.
It has been a big 2024 for former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley even though she has been off television for three months due to an injury. Ripley headlined the Elimination Chamber PLE in her home country of Australia and then she beat Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 40 to remain the WWE Women’s World Champion.
In addition to that, Rhea Ripley also got married to fellow wrestler Buddy Matthews on June 25th. Matthews was known as Buddy Murphy in WWE, but he’s an AEW guy now and he’s part of the House of Black stable.
When Ripley was on the WWE NXT brand, one of the trainers she worked with a lot was former WWE superstar Serena Deeb, who is also on the AEW roster now.
During a recent episode Gabby LaSpisa’s Gabby AF podcast, Serena Deeb recalled seeing Ripley backstage at AEW Double or Nothing and revealed that she knew Ripley would be a massive star. Serena brought up Ripley while talking about TNA’s Jordynne Grace recently appearing on WWE television.
“Anything is possible. It’s a cool place for the business to be at because for so long, it wasn’t like that, and it was very rigid, the very rigid lines of, ‘No, you can’t cross that,’ and now the lines are blurred. You mentioned Jordynne [Grace], I thought her match at that NXT pay-per-view was really good. I really respect her. She’s honestly somebody, yeah, I would love to get in there with Jordynne at some point. But I would say definitely number one is Rhea Ripley.”
“When we were at the Performance Center together, we just had a really cool bond. I felt really close with her. I think of all the coaches, myself and Scotty 2 Hotty, we were kind of her people. I always had her back, I always tried to pep her up and encourage her. I know, and I’m not saying, ‘Oh, I knew,’ but I knew. I was like, this girl’s a star. Once she gets that right thing, forget about it, she’s gonna rise so fast, which she has.”
Serena Deeb Believes Rhea Ripley The “Biggest Star In Women’s Wrestling”
As the discussion continued, Serena spoke about seeing Ripley at Double or Nothing, which led to an emotional reunion between the two women.
“I actually saw her at Double or Nothing. I saw her, I couldn’t believe it when I saw her. I was completely shocked. We embraced each other, I gave her the biggest hug, and we seriously did not let go for like ten minutes. We were just standing there with our arms around each other. I cried multiple times.”
“I told her, ‘I’m so proud of you, I knew it. You’ve persevered through so much.’ I love watching her. I think she’s the biggest star in women’s wrestling. I think her in-ring work is incredible, on top of all her character work. She’s number one. I told her that.”
“In my personal opinion, she’s just operating at a level that, there’s a lot of great women, but she’s up here in my opinion. When I saw her, I was like, ‘I want to wrestle you so bad.’ I think for both of us, it’s a dream match, for sure.”
While there is no official date announced for when Rhea Ripley might return to WWE television to rejoin her teammates in The Judgment Day, it has been reported that Ripley could make her return at SummerSlam in Cleveland on August 3rd. If it does happen, Ripley will likely be targeting the current Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan.