Rhea Ripley Talks Ring Name Origins, WrestleMania Glory, Partnership with ‘Dirty’ Dom, and Why Mami’s Always on Top – Exclusive with Chris Van Vliet

Today, one of the most respected voices in wrestling media, Chris Van Vliet — host of the acclaimed podcast Insight with Chris Van Vliet — sat down with none other than WWE megastar Rhea Ripley for an in-depth and captivating conversation. Widely regarded as one of the most dominant and influential Superstars in modern WWE history, Ripley opened up like never before, diving into the origins of her ring name, her meteoric rise through the ranks, and the undeniable chemistry she shared with “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio. With Van Vliet’s signature blend of curiosity and charisma guiding the conversation, fans were treated to a rare glimpse behind the leather and studs of “Mami,” proving once again that Rhea Ripley is always in control — in and out of the ring.

Here is a snippet of the interview courtesy of chrisvanvliet.com:

On the inspiration behind the name Rhea Ripley:

“So when I first started, they asked me for five combinations of names, and I went through trying to make combinations of names that I liked from either band members or just strong women in general.”

Did you know Mami would become so popular?

“No, I was trying to push the Papi agenda. And they were like yeah, we can’t do that. And then Priest was like, ‘What about Mami?’ I was like, Okay, guess I’ll be Mami. I was really set on the Papi thing. I was like, I can be a little sh*t stirrer, just be Papi this, Papi that. But they’re like, we just can’t go there. And I was like, Okay, I respect that. Mami’s gonna grow on me, though.”

On her favourite WrestleMania moment:

“Honestly, the WrestleMania moment, I always said my match with Charlotte [at WrestleMania 39], because it’s everything that I wanted my first Mania to be. Because it ended up being the COVID Mania. I didn’t get my family, I didn’t get the crowd, I didn’t get anything that normally goes into a Mania. And it was just like, wow, I’m back at the place that I really didn’t like going to every day, and this is my WrestleMania. So to then go and face Charlotte again, but it being in front of a crowd, and I saw my family in the front row, I had all the adrenaline in the world. Everything was so perfect, and then I beat her for the first time. I won the SmackDown Women’s Championship, that was my WrestleMania moment. But then now I feel like the match with IYO and Bianca has triumphed that. I am literally so proud of that match. I love those two so much, going through NXT with them, overcoming things with them, watching them overcome things, watching them grow as performers, and then me growing as performer to get to that point where we could go to WrestleMania and have such a stellar match, and have people chanting, this is awesome, and us being the opener. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I understand I lost, it doesn’t matter at that time. It really didn’t, because that was IYO’s moment, but we all got a moment from it at the same time.”

On working with Dominik Mysterio:

“Honestly, I think that was like another turning point in my career, being partnered with Dom and also being a part of the Judgment Day. It made me open up as a performer. It made me have to work a lot more because I was doing nine segments in a 16-segment show. Sometimes more. We were doing everything as a part of Judgment Day. I was running around helping Finn and Damian, and then helping Dom and doing promos, making business deals, wrestling myself, doing women’s storylines. And I was just like, I had no time to think about absolutely anything. I just had to go. I was like, What do I need to do? Cool. Going live in 3, 2, 1, do what you got to do.

Then being partnered with Dom, it just helped my character transform into something different. Because I feel like in NXT, I was doing the same thing, but on different brands. I was on NXT UK, and I was that force that came from the second Mae Young Classic, and then that kind of transferred onto NXT, but in a babyface sort of manner, which was a little bit different, but kind of the same. And then as soon as I came to the main roster, it was in COVID. So Vince didn’t know what to do with me. He didn’t know if I was face or heel. And he’s like, Well, she looks like a heel. And everyone was like, You don’t understand, she’s a babyface. People actually like it. He’s like, Nah, she’s a heel. So then going out there and being so confused on what I’m doing, but not having that crowd reaction to actually feed off of and prove my point that I was a babyface at the time. It made it really hard. And then after that, like, obviously the trial and error with the tag team stuff, but also, holding on to who I was in NXT. I feel like when I got partnered with Dom, I could actually blossom a little bit into something different. Instead of being the hard ass all the time, I was Mami.”

You can checkout the full interview on multiple platforms such as the ones below:

Spotify: