Rhea Ripley Shuts Down Rumors That She Lost NXT Women’s Title Over Visa Issues

Rhea Ripley is putting an end to rumors that her NXT Women’s Title loss at WrestleMania was due to visa issues. Ripley spoke with Metro for a new interview talking about her run in WWE, the title loss and more. Highlights are below:

Rhea Ripley on having a hard time when she initially settled in Florida for NXT: “It’s such a big step to move to a completely different country with pretty much no one. I moved here, I sort of knew IIconics and TM61 – and that’s all I knew. I knew Dakota Kai a little bit, but at the same time she was very close with Tegan [Nox] so they were together. I felt very alone.”

On drawing inspiration from Becky Lynch and Paige: “I totally understand how Becky felt. And another thing that I relate to is Paige’s movie, Fighting With My Family. When I watched that I was like, ‘Damn that’s my life!’ Seeing her at the airport with her parents, her wrestling friends and family, and everyone’s crying and saying goodbye. It was the exact same feeling for me. To see how far everyone’s come – Becky, Paige, everyone that came from different countries.’ Naturally, the Nightmare isn’t putting down anyone from the US who made their own sacrifices to do what they love, but there’s no denying a whole life upheaval adds an extra strain.”

On rumors she had to go to Australia to work on visa issues: “Yes, I had to do my visa but now i’m having to do it here because there’s no flights. I can’t get to Australia, and then if I was there I couldn’t get back out… I had people from work calling me like, ‘Are you in Australia right now?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not an idiot! No!'”

On the perception that her NXT Women’s Championship loss was due to the issues: “I sort of just laugh it off. Social media can be very negative at times. If this had been going round when I wasn’t as mentally strong as I am now, I would’ve taken it a completely different way and things wouldn’t have been as good… It’s quite funny seeing people saying that I lost because I had to go back to Australia.”