Rhea Ripley is officially looking back at one of the most physically demanding moments of her career. At WrestleMania 39, Ripley met Charlotte Flair in a historic encounter for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship. While the match is widely considered a masterpiece, Ripley recently revealed that a specific high-strength spot nearly took a disastrous turn in front of the global audience.
Speaking to Nina Drama on a recent Kick stream, Ripley was asked if she still suffers from nerves regarding specific maneuvers. She admitted that while she is confident in her athleticism, certain high-flying moves like her springboard head-scissors or her “around the world” DDT still give her pause because she doesn’t perform them every night.
However, the move that truly tested her was a modified suplex she attempted against the “Queen” in Los Angeles. The spot required Ripley to muscle Flair up into a specific position, but Charlotte’s height and lanky frame made the execution incredibly difficult as the match progressed into the later stages.
“I remember, because she’s so long and lanky, like, her legs are just so long… I remember flipping her around and I got her to sit here and I tucked her head and I went for the suplex and her legs got caught on my hips and then I’m like, ‘oh no, oh no.’ I literally, I don’t know what happened,” Ripley explained. “I guess it was just adrenaline, but I somehow managed to like, bicep curl her, and shoulder press her up into the suplex.”
The struggle was visible to the fans in the arena as both women fought for positioning. Ripley noted that in that moment, she was terrified of failing the move and having to hear about it from critics and peers afterward. The successful execution of the suplex remains one of the most impressive displays of raw power in the history of the women’s division.
“It took like a hot minute, and you see us both like struggling, and I was like, ‘I better hit this’… and I’ve somehow hit it, I don’t know how. Dude, I felt so strong, I felt like I could do anything,” she added. That victory over Flair cemented Ripley as a top-tier star and set the stage for her current dominant run on the Monday Night Raw roster.
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