Similarly to her first match in WWE, Ripley explained that her battle against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 40 caused her extreme anxiety beforehand due to “The Man” being ill heading into the show. In addition, Ripley hadn’t wrestled on television often during WrestleMania season and had doubts about her performance in the ring. 

“Against Becky Lynch, like I worked myself up so drastically that whole day and I put so much extra stress on my own shoulders with things that weren’t my responsibilities … Becky was sick and I was like ‘Okay well, I need to be at 110%,’ so that I can help her wherever I need to help her. And then I hadn’t had many matches so I was like I need this to be a good match. I need people to remember that I can actually go and I can actually wrestle … I don’t want to go out there and have a stinker and then have people say like ‘Oh this is why she shouldn’t be champion. She sucks, she can’t wrestle, she’s over pushed. She’s Rhea Hogan.'”

Ripley also admitted that she usually waits until the last minute to get dressed and apply makeup before matches, which added extra stress before facing Lynch, as she still wasn’t ready with just 30 minutes until showtime.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Insight” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.