Since Triple H took over creative duties upon Vince McMahon retiring in July 2022, wrestlers have noticeably had a little more freedom on the microphone. Though points still need to be made in promos, certain words, such as "wrestling," are used with more freedom and some performers have more leeway than they had before.
Rhea Ripley has grown as a character as member of Judgment Day, finding a chemistry with Finn Balor, Damian Priest, and Dominik Mysterio that has translated into them having fun while simultaneously being one of the most hated acts on television.
Speaking to Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media Podcast, Ripley was asked how much freedom she has in promos.
"It really goes week to week. I've had a couple of promos where I didn't get too much of a say because there were things they wanted to get across. Obviously, they're like, 'Yes, you can word it in your own way but we pretty much want it exactly like this.' It gets to the point sometimes where I'm like, I don't even know how to reword this because it's not really the way that I would speak, so I might just say it exactly how it is and just try and put my own twang on it, maybe throw a 'mate' in there or a 'Rhea bloody Ripley' or something. A lot of the time, a lot of the backstages, I get free range. Most of the time, I don't really read my promos until right before doing them because I don't want to be stressing about it too much, especially when I'm out there with the boys [Judgment Day]. We go out there and we bounce off each other. We help each other through it. A lot of the time, we just mingle out there. We're just saying random things, hyping each other up and helping each other out. It's such an art to be able to go out there and just wing it. That's where the fun comes from and why the fans gravitated towards me and the Judgment Day, especially with our backstages. We go into it knowing we're going to have fun. 'Let's mess with this person a little bit,' we go out there and start saying things we want to say. Most of the time it's dumb. Dom will go out there and start talking all prison talk and we're all hype guys behind him," she said.
Ripley has been featured on both WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown in recent weeks as she is set to challenge Charlotte Flair for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 39.
Fans can check out the current lineup for WrestleMania 39 by clicking here.
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