From its origins as part of the traveling carnival industry, all the way up into the modern era, pro wrestling has endured a reputation for being a cutthroat business. That reputation has started to soften in recent years, however. During a recent interview with SHAK Wrestling, WWE star Rhea Ripley explained that it simply makes more sense for the locker room to cooperate for everyone’s benefit.

“I feel like we’ve gotten to a point within this industry where – yeah, it is kind of about working together,” Ripley stated. “Back in the day, I see why there were so many arguments and so many people not getting along and fights, because everyone was pretty much out there for themselves, trying to succeed by themselves. But this business – it’s not really somewhere where you can be super selfish, because it’s a team effort.”

According to Ripley, she goes into every match thinking about what she can do to help her opponent, rather than just thinking about what she has to gain from the encounter. After working incredibly hard to earn the position as one of the top women in WWE, Ripley sees it as her responsibility to help lift up the people around her.

“I’m gonna need some competitors that I step in the ring with and it looks like a real fight,” Ripley continued.

Ripley cited current WWE Women’s United States Champion Giulia as someone she’s tried to help elevate. The two had a match on “WWE SmackDown” in February, which ended after nearly 10 minutes with interference from Nia Jax and Lash Legend. It sounds as though Ripley sees Giulia as a future contender for the WWE Women’s Championship, especially since the two have unfinished business.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit SHAK Wrestling and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

For the second straight year, Vince McMahon’s presence loomed large over the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, with fans chanting “Thank you Vince!” after he was mentioned by his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, during her Hall of Fame speech. That reaction has prompted plenty of discussion, including whether or not McMahon should be inducted into the Hall of Fame himself, or how that could even be possible as McMahon continues to face accusations of sex trafficking and abuse from Janel Grant in her ongoing lawsuit.

As it turns out, at least one person was having that discussion before fans chanted for McMahon at the Hall of Fame ceremony. On last week’s episode of “My World,” Conrad Thompson asked AEW’s Jeff Jarrett, himself a WWE Hall of Famer, about the possibility of McMahon going into the Hall of Fame, perhaps at next year’s WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia. Jarrett instead proposed it happen now.

“In my opinion, the sooner the better,” Jarrett said. “Like, I get political, I get court cases, I get all of that. But the sooner the better. Life is short. I’d like to see it this year, I understand why it’s not. Next year, if that’s what it is…look, you know, Vince doesn’t need the Hall of Fame to validate his career. But I think it would be fantastic. 

“Again…at the end of the day, your audience is all that matters…That’s what it’s all about. If you deliver to your audience, then I do believe Vince has done so much for this industry, that even his worst critics and haters would say ‘Okay, I still hate the son of a b***h. But yeah, he’s a Hall of Famer.'”

If you quote this article, please credit “My World with Jeff Jarrett” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription

It takes a lot of preparation to get ready for a fight. Weeks of training camp getting prepared for an opponent, the weight cutting, the adrenaline surrounding fight week, everything needs to be considered when judging a performance in the octagon. A good camp can make or break a fighter’s chances, but for Ronda Rousey, her fight camps towards the end of her UFC career had become very toxic. “But it was also the toxicity of my training camp. The process wasn’t fun anymore, and I was just so over it. Everything was so result-oriented, and I wanted to enjoy the everyday and not just the possible results.”

Just over a year after her loss to Amanda Nunes, Rousey would sign with the WWE. However, she didn’t want to go public about the negotiations, or even her problems with concussions given WWE’s history with concussion protocol. “That’s kind of what led me to pro wrestling, but I didn’t wanna go public about it, because I didn’t want WWE to be like, ‘We don’t want to work with you,’ because of the baggage. They’ve had bad press from concussions in the past. So, I had to keep it to myself, but that’s kind of what forced my hand.”

In the end, it was revealed to Rousey that her various symptoms she thought were from repeated concussions were actually something different, and she has UFC President Dana White for helping her discovering the issues. “Fortunately, because Dana sent me to the Cleveland Clinic, we got a diagnosis for what was actually going on with me. They think it’s actually migraines, and they got me on preventative migraine medication, and we’ve been able to test with sparring and see that it works. It’s been absolutely life-changing for me.”

Rousey knows that the upcoming fight with Carano will likely be her last, but she’s hoping that for one last time, she can prove why at one point in time, she was known to many as “The Baddest Woman on the Planet.”

Please credit “The Independent” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Doomsday reared its ugly head this past Friday, with another round of yearly cuts post-WrestleMania. Of those names on the list was Zoey Stark, who joined the WWE roster on January 20, 2021. Reflecting on her five year venture with the Stamford-based promotion, Stark expressed nothing but gratitude and hope after such a bittersweet departure.

On X [formerly known as Twitter], the former WWE NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion wrote, “Thank you WWE, you made a young girls dream come true. You could not have been better and more supportive during my healing and I will be forever grateful. Thank you to all the girls in the back, the producers, camera men you were all incredibly kind and gracious. And a special Thank you to Terry Taylor and Coach Bloom for teaching me so much and being a shoulder to lean on. Its just the end of this chapter and the beginning of a new one. Falling Forward, onward and upward with God’s plan Booking: zstark.booking@gmail.com.”

Thank you WWE, you made a young girls dream come true. You could not have been better and more supportive during my healing and I will be forever grateful. Thank you to all the girls in the back, the producers, camera men you were all incredibly kind and gracious. And a special…

— Zoey Stark (@ZoeyStarkWWE) April 25, 2026

Starting her career in “NXT,” Stark remained part of the developmental brand from 2021-2022 before her main roster call-up in 2023. As a heel, she aligned herself with a very powerful name in the business, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, before dismantling their alliance at Payback in 2023. After turning her back on the Hall of Famer, Stark added her name to the Pure Fusion Collective with former WWE stars Shayna Baszler and Sonya Deville. The trio would infuse their hard-hitting style collectively until Baszler and Deville were released in 2025. After their departures, Stark would return to singles competition. However, the former tag team champion would be sidelined with an ACL, MCL, and meniscus tears during one of several women’s Money in the Bank qualifying matches last May.

It was noted that WWE officials were “very high” on Stark, and were looking forward to her eventual return, prior to this release. Some were discussing the possibility of turning Stark into a babyface after she was cleared.