One of the biggest names in women’s wrestling has opened up on the impact industry legend John Cena has had on her career as she looks set to share the spotlight with the retiring great when the WWE takes over Perth later this year.
Speaking exclusively to The West Australian’s special WWE Path to Perth podcast, Rhea Ripley — a three-time world champion and one of the sport entertainment company’s top talents — revealed the global sensation had actively sought her out backstage several times to give her advice after she performed at live events.
Ripley was in Perth on Friday alongside fellow Australian-born superstar Grayson Waller to announce Crown Jewel as the premium live event that will headline a three-show takeover of the city in October, which will mark one of the final stops in the farewell tour of Cena, who won the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania last month.
And with Ripley all but certain to also feature on the card, the Adelaide-born talent spoke candidly about the respect she had for the record-breaking 17-time world champion.
“To have him come to Australia as part of his farewell tour (of) WWE is insane … it is mammoth” she told The West.
“I’ve been on a few live events with him, just getting some of the feedback especially when I was younger and he was on some of the live events, it helped so much coming from someone like that.
“I was like ‘wow you actually sat and watched what I was doing and wanted to give me feedback’, so I took every single little scrap I could from him and even coming here to Australia I’ll be asking him for any advice he can give me.”
Waller — a Sydney-born former WWE Tag Team Champion — described Cena as a legend of the business but, remaining in his “heel” persona, said greats were there to be dethroned.
“For me, like this is an Australian show and and just hearing John’s name over and over again can get pretty frustrating when we should be celebrating the Australian stars,” he told the podcast.
“I’ve never been one to show respect to legends because I don’t think that’s how you properly show them that respect. I I think kissing their ass and asking for advice that’s not how you respect them.
“You go in, you go against them, you fight them, you learn from them that way.”
In a wide-ranging interview on the podcast, Ripley spoke candidly about how the company’s WWE division had evolved drastically over the past decade.
The 28-year-old grew up watching matches the audience would call “bathroom breaks” that often lasted just seconds, with “bra and panties”, mud-wrestling and pillow fights common stipulations.
Ripley has been at the centre of an enormous shift, which saw a record four women’s matches at it’s marquee Wrestlemania event last month, including her five-star rated triple threat contest.
“We’re really proving that we can go toe-to-toe with the men and I love that to see how far the women’s division has come over the last few years,” she said.
“To see us now take (what the women before my time did) to higher heights is incredible. And I can only imagine what the next few years are going to look like for the women’s division because we’re taking over. I won’t sugar coat it. We’re taking over.”
Ripley did not shy away from her ambitions at the Crown Jewel event on October 11, which also happened to be her birthday, stating she wanted to walk a women’s world champion.
“It would honestly mean the world (to win a title in Australia) … I would love to bring home so more gold.”
Crown Jewel will take place at RAC Arena on Saturday, October 11, with Smackdown the night prior and Raw on October 13.
