Rhea Ripley says Vince McMahon didn’t know what to do with her when she debuted on the WWE main roster

While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, WWE star Rhea Ripley commented on her run with Judgment Day and being paired up 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 [McMahon] 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.” (quote courtesy of ChrisVanVliet.com)