That upward track led Ripley to “WWE NXT UK,” and eventually, back to the “NXT” brand, where she dethroned Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship in December 2019. According to Ripley, though, that title win almost didn’t happen.

“That was when we were filming at Full Sail [University]. We’re filming four weeks in a row, so it was like alright, we’re here all day. We’re going to be filming four shows, so everything’s already pre-planned. I was supposed to wrestle Shayna and I was supposed to lose. I wasn’t supposed to win,” Ripley said.

“It was supposed to be a throwaway ‘Rhea is here, she lost to the champion, now we probably don’t know what to do with her’ [situation], but because I got such a massive reaction from the Full Sail crowd, Sara Amato literally ran into the locker room. She’s like ‘We have to change the ending of the match. Rhea can’t lose.’ We’re going to do a DQ because that’s all we can really think of right now to continue it. So it was a DQ finish. I think I hit her with a chair and then I sat on the chair and told her to come back in my ring because I wanted to continue fighting. Then it trickled down and we had the match with the championship. The rest is really much history.”

Ripley’s reign as NXT Women’s Champion spanned a recognized length of 108 days, with a televised title defense against Bianca Belair in addition to live event-based ones against Baszler, Raquel Rodriguez, and Chelsea Green. “The Queen” Charlotte Flair  unseated Ripley at WrestleMania 36, though “The Eradicator” later scored revenge by beating her for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship three years later.

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