Rhea Ripley’s character evolution is a journey of self-discovery and authenticity.
Female wrestlers were traditionally depicted as conventionally attractive, blonde, and resembling models. Their ring time was limited to barely one minute for wrestling. Ripley initially started with a similar image but later moved in a completely different direction, embracing a goth aesthetic with tattoos, embodying the “Mami” character. In an interview with the Australian newspaper The West Australian, Ripley discussed why she opted for this unique direction instead of following a previously successful path. Ripley recently had an interview with the Australian newspaper The West Australian.
“I think it’s all about being yourself. For me, when I first came in for the first Mae Young Classic, I had the long blonde hair, I smiled way too much, way too bubbly. It wasn’t me. The person that you see today was the person I was back then, but I was trying so hard to be someone else because of obviously, the people that I watched growing up. I thought that’s what they wanted, so that’s what I gave them.”
Ripley said that she didn’t feel comfortable being someone who she isn’t, and this clearly showed with the fact that she wasn’t getting shows and opportunities.
“I didn’t feel comfortable, and after a while, I wasn’t getting put on shows. I wasn’t getting opportunities. I was getting beat down and picked on. They didn’t think that I worked hard enough, but I was just trying to give them what I thought they wanted. But at the end of the day, the best thing you could do is just be confident with the person that you are. So once I decided not to care what people thought about me, I was like I am gonna be myself.”
Rhea Ripley’s evolution to ‘Mami’
This is when Rhea decided to let her personality shine through, and the character that we see today is actually her just growing up and finding herself as a person.
“[I] cut my hair short, and once I did that and I started wearing the long pants with the chains and the studs, changed my persona and came out and was just mean mugging everyone, beating everyone up. ‘This is my brutality,’ it’s not even a joke, it’s what I did. That’s when my career really started rockin’ and rollin’. And the Rhea Ripley evolution that you’ve seen into the Rhea Ripley that you see today it’s just me growing as a person outside of the WWE and I’m just letting it shine through within the WWE sort of thing. So it’s me, and I think that’s what the fans see, and that’s what gravitates them towards Rhea Ripley.”
