Rhea Ripley wants to have a historic rivalry with Bianca Belair.
Belair and Ripley quickly climbed to the top of the WWE women’s division in 2021; Ripley won the RAW Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37, while Belair captured the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the same show. Since then, the two stars have continued to shine bright, but they have rarely clashed with each other. Ripley was supposed to challenge Belair for the RAW Women’s Championship at WWE Money in the Bank 2021, but she was pulled from the bout due to an injury.
In an interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Ripley looked back on the match getting canceled and highlighted the positive side of the situation. The former champion stated that she and Belair don’t want to rush their feud, as they want to have a special rivalry and make magic together.
“As upsetting as it was, I think it was a blessing in disguise,” Ripley said. “Bianca and I, it’s something that shouldn’t be rushed and we don’t want to rush it. Where that sort of felt like it’s gonna happen and that would be the end of it. We want our names to be etched in history. We want to leave our legacy where we can be in the ring together and make magic,” she said.
The Judgment Day member went on to describe how she and Belair are perfect rivals, and with their feud, they want their feud to be the next Steve Austin and The Rock. She recalled how they’ve talked about their vision for a major storyline together as early as their days in NXT.
“Bianca and I are perfect rivals pretty much. We’ve talked about it in NXT before. We’ve talked about it here at Raw before. We pretty much want to be the next Stone Cold and The Rock. We want to have the storylines. We want to go out there and we want to steal the show.”
Ripley also described how her injury forced her to miss several months, and even after she got cleared, she hasn’t had many opportunities to wrestle due to her role as The Judgment Day’s enforcer. Given this dynamic, she stated that she feels like her career is starting up again.
“A lot of it was the injury. I hadn’t been cleared for the longest time,” Ripley said. “I think I got cleared properly and fully the week before my NXT match (on Oct. 18). Apart from that, I pretty much wasn’t cleared that whole time (four months). After that there pretty much hasn’t been an opportunity for me to wrestle because I have been there with The Judgment Day and sort of their muscle. I help them out if they need me. I’m “the problem” as the OC would say. I feel like my wrestling career is just starting up again.”
Ripley and Belair will be on opposite sides of the Women’s WarGames Match at WWE Survivor Series on November 26.
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