Rhea Ripley Hoping For Another One on One Match With Charlotte Flair

In an interview with PWinsider, Rhea Ripley spoke about fighting Dakota Kai on tonight’s NXT and wanting another one-on-one match with Charlotte Flair. Here are highlights:

On her match with Dakota Kai tonight: “It’s not going to be an easy task pretty much. Dakota’s changed a lot from the Dakota that I used to know and it’s gonna be very hard to defeat her this time, but you know, I miss my NXT Women’s Championship so I’m going to do anything that I can to try and go through Dakota and become the #1 Contender and get a singles match against Io Shirai, so I guess we’ll see if I can pull it off or not tomorrow, but you know I’m down for a fight. So the Dakota that she was before NXT Takeover: War Games – she was sort of like a team player and she just tried to please everyone and I understand that, cause that’s how I was in the first Mae Young Classic, but the Dakota that we see these days and that has evolved into the person that she is today, she no longer cares about anything that anyone says or anything that anyone thinks. She’s not a team player like she says and that’s very dangerous cause – like that, I was like that in NXT UK and I know what it does to your mind and I know how angry she is feeling right now, so I know that she’s not going to hold back at all and she wants to go, she wants what she thinks that she deserves and I really gotta watch myself going into this match tomorrow because I honestly don’t really know what to expect from her, she could do anything.”

On facing Charlotte again: “Definitely, every time I step in the ring with Charlotte, it’s always magic, and we always steal the show, so I really hope that we get to have another one on one match sometime down the line, when that is, I have no idea, hopefully she comes back soon, but yeah I would definitely love it, and hopefully this time it can be in front of fans in the audience, which would be amazing, cause it’s just a different sort of setting and it’s something that we haven’t done yet.”

On possibly fighting Io Shirai: “I would love to have a one on one match with Io Shirai going for the NXT Women’s Championship. Like you said, the last match I had was a three-way, it had Charlotte in it, so you sort of have to watch your back at all times, where if it’s one on one, you can really just pay attention to the one person, and last time I stepped in the ring with Io in a one on one match was the Mae Young Classic 2, and she beat me, so [laughs], and now she has my NXT Women’s Championship, so I would love to have a one on one match with Io and try and reclaim what was mine and I think it would be a lot of fun. She’s great, she’s a fantastic performer and athlete and she’s incredible at everything that she does, and she’s a lot of fun to step in the ring with, cause you never really know what’s going to happen, so yeah I’m very excited to see if that is what happens.”

On having to deal with Raquel Gonzalez as Kai’s second: “Raquel has grown so, so much since joining with Dakota and to be honest it’s terrifying, cause she’s a big girl and she’s tough and she’s strong. I know exactly how strong she is – I used to tag with her for a good year and a half, so I know Raquel like the back of my hand and I know what she’s capable of, so I gotta watch my back a bit this Wednesday against Dakota. We’ll see if she decides to interfere at all but you know, I’m ready for her, I know her like I said, I’m hoping that one day I get to face Raquel, so we’ll see if that gets to happen, but I would love to step in the ring with her. I think she’s absolutely incredible, like I said she’s grown so much and she’s just looking amazing right now.”

On being away from her family due to pandemic travel restrictions: “Oh man, it’s been a crazy time for everyone I think, I do miss my family a lot, words cannot describe how much I do miss them and I can’t wait until the borders open up and I get to travel home to go see them because I haven’t seen them in a long time [laughs]. I don’t even remember the last time I saw them, probably Christmas last year I want to say, yeah, it’s been a long, long time. I sort of try and keep my mind busy so I don’t think of that stuff, like I still Facetime them every now and then but it’s hard cause they are in Australia and the time zone is extremely different, so it’s hard to contact them, especially with them going to work, cause everything’s starting to open up in Australia now, so I’m sort of just trying to keep my mind busy, so whenever I’m at work and doing the one thing that I love which is wrestling, I’m distracted and I’m happy. Other than that I’m just trying to work out as much as I can, I’m working out like a madman [laughs] cause that distracts me. I love going to the gym and I love going to all that stuff, so that’s pretty much just a huge distraction right now just so I don’t have to think about how much I do miss my mom, dad and sister.”