Serena Deeb On Her Time Coaching At The Performance Center, Being Impressed By Rhea Ripley

Serena Deeb talked about her time as a coach at the WWE Performance Center, knowing she would step back into the ring, her thoughts on Rhea Ripley and more in a new interview with Women’s Wrestling Talk. You can check out some highlights below:

Serena Deeb on knowing she would get back into the ring again: “To be honest with you, while I was coaching and I absolutely loved my coaching job, it really let me grow as a human being, so much so I’m super grateful for it. But the whole time I was coaching, I had a feeling that I may not be done wrestling. But obviously, I was embracing that chapter and that role in my life. So there was this part of me that was like ‘ I don’t feel done. Like in my heart I don’t feel done.’ And there was this other part of me that was trying to be super present with that job and embracing what that was bringing to me in my life. So, I think there was always a large portion of me that didn’t feel done and still had something to contribute in the ring. And all of this with AEW and NWA has really happened so fast. It has been great.”

On who she wants to face next: “So many, I mean there is an entire roster of women that I haven’t had the chance to get in the ring with before. But, I would say first and foremost, Hikaru Shida, the AEW women’s champion is someone that… I really like her wrestling style and I think she has been a great champion.”

On the development of women’s wrestling: “I mean from a female standpoint the business is a completely different place. As you guys know, I started my training and it was still like the Diva’s era and they were doing the Diva’s search every year. The qualities in performers that they were looking for were very different. So, if you were about wrestling, it wasn’t always the best environment for that or the most conducive to growing in that area. It’s weird being out of the ring for as long as I was … almost 5 years and then coming back into that role and seeing all those changes. To even have a women’s match on the card let alone an awesome women’s match is huge, compared to 15 years ago.”

On Rhea Ripley: “There are some who are naturals and wrestling just clicks with. Rhea Ripley is an example of that. She was somebody that from the second I saw her, I was like ok, the girl is going to be a star and do big things in this business and watching the growth of someone like in the time I was there was really rewarding and just proud.”