Rhea Ripley On WWE Not Clearing Her Upper Body For Tattoos, Possibly Wrestling The Night Before WM
WWE NXT Women's Champion Rhea Ripley recently spoke with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT and said she would be down to wrestle a match at NXT "Takeover: Tampa" during WrestleMania 36 Weekend.
WWE has officially announced Charlotte Flair vs. Ripley for the title on The Grandest Stage of Them All, but Ripley said she'd be down to wrestle the night before at Takeover in Tampa. She was asked if she would defend the night before WrestleMania.
"If the championship has to be defended, the championship has to be defended," Ripley said. "I'm a fighting champion because that's what I love to do, so I'd definitely be there. This is what I've wanted to do since I was little and I ain't going to give in now even if I do have WrestleMania the next day."
She continued and name-dropped the injured Io Shirai and Raquel Gonzalez as who she'd like to face if she did have to wrestle the night before WrestleMania.
"I would love to face Io [Shirai]," Ripley said. "I think she's injured at this current time, hopefully she'll be cleared by WrestleMania because I'd love to go toe-to-toe with her. But other than Io, I'd love to get in there with Raquel Gonzalez. She debuted on NXT TakeOver: Portland and she attempted to put Tegan Nox through a table and helped Dakota [Kai] pick up the win. But I'd love to go toe-to-toe with her because I think it would be a very great battle and we know each other so well. I feel like we'd just go out there and put on a five-star match."
Regarding her tattoos, Ripley revealed that WWE isn't clearing her upper body for any new ink. Ripley said she's wanted to become the most tattooed human ever since she was a kid. She wears pants now so she wouldn't have to clear her tattoos with the company.
"My dream since being a little girl is to be the most tattooed human ever. I just love tattoos, I don't know why! I've always loved them. But, unfortunately for me, WWE isn't clearing my upper body [for tattoos] ? that's why I wear pants! I got pants so I wouldn't have to clear my tattoos because you can't see them. I'm trying to finish my leg sleeves, then hopefully I can convince people to let me get my arm sleeves and other stuff, but we'll see how that goes," Ripley said, laughing.