Interviewing any talent when you’re outnumbered 4-1 with PR people is always a little intimidating. It’s even more intimidating when the person you’re interviewing is world champion WWE star Rhea Ripley, and the first thing she says is that she’ll hit you if you messed up her WWE 2K24 Showcase match against Charlotte Flair during your hands-on with the game.
You’ll never guess what I had done immediately before walking into the room.
Our interview was over Zoom, with me in the 2K Sydney offices and her in an undisclosed (but tastefully decorated) location in America, so thankfully, I survived the encounter. After some light mocking of my blaming the poor outcome on the controls, it turned out that I’m not the only one who needs to Git Gud. Ripley had her own tale of button-mashing woe.
“I played as myself once. It was a knockout competition, an intergender tag team competition. I got to the finals, and I got pinned by Charlotte. This is before I beat her at WrestleMania, so she’s already my kryptonite, and I had never beat her. I was like, I can’t even beat her in the game! So, after that, I was like, ‘I’m not playing as myself’. I can’t do it. So, I’ve been playing as Dom.”
There is also next-level realism in the game, apparently. “I feel like I’m a little bit of a button smasher too. So, Dom doesn’t always do what I want him to do. It’s very realistic. Like, even the game version (of Dom) doesn’t listen to me.”
After that, the subject turned to her joint achievement of being the first woman ever to be on the cover of a WWE 2K game, shared with Bianca Belair.
“Dude, it means the world – like it’s crazy to see my face on a WWE 2K24 game cover. It’s wild to know that I have played this game as a child, and I have played it over the last couple of years, and to now know that I have the privilege to be on the cover,” Ripley said. “It’s another thing that I can tick off my bucket list. I’ve always wanted this, and to be on the first ever all-female cover with Bianca, it’s insane. It’s a history-making thing. I honestly can’t put into words how it makes me feel.”
Ripley is featured on the WWE 2k24 Deluxe Edition cover, with the Standard Edition featuring American Nightmare Cody Rhodes. Being one of the first two women on the cover is an absolute achievement, to be sure. But given how competitive Ripley is, I asked if it was an achievement she wished she had alone.
“Look, Mami always on top. Being next to the EST, it is a very suiting couple to be on the cover, because she likes to think that she’s the best. She’s the roughest. She’s the toughest. She’s the strongest. She’s the fastest. She’s the EST of WWE. At the same time, though, Mami runs all the family, and Mami is always on top. So, I think you couldn’t put in two other superstars on there together. It just wouldn’t make sense. It makes sense with Bianca and I.”
With all athletes featured in 2K games, there is always an argument about whether their rating is accurate. Ripley didn’t know then what her rating was, and a signed NDA meant that I wasn’t allowed to tell her (nor can I tell you). But she hoped to match another WWE star.
“I think Mami deserves the best. So, I’m going to say whatever Roman Reigns is rated as, I think Mami should be rated the same. I should be acknowledged the same way that the Tribal Chief is because Mami runs Monday night Raw and Mami runs the Judgment Day and Mami runs WWE. So, whatever he’s on, I should be on.”
WrestleMania is really the showpiece of the new WWE 2K24 game. The Showcase mode is all about celebrating the last 40 years of WrestleMania, digging into the history of the greatest fights. Competing at an event with an anniversary ending in “0” is a big deal, because it gets promoted somehow even more than usual. It takes on extra gravitas. Because of that, Ripley has high hopes.
“It’s definitely got the big fight feel, it’s big number 40. It’s gonna be an impactful WrestleMania, and I think everyone’s going to be bringing their absolute A-game because it does feel special. It really does. I want the best. I want to go out there, and I want the main event. I want to have the best match of WrestleMania. I want it all, and I just want to take everything that I can get.”
With great hopes come great expectations (or whatever Charles Dickens said in Spider-Man), and Ripley has a lot of those, too.
“I’m expecting the perfect challenger. I’m expecting to go into WrestleMania with my Women’s World Championship, and I’m expecting to leave WrestleMania with my Women’s World Championship. I want the best of the best at their 100%, because I want to prove that I am the best in the women’s division. I want to step in there with someone who’s at the top of their game. I’ve got my eyes on Nia. I’ve got my eyes on a lot of different people, like Bailey. So far, I’m not entirely sure who it’s going to be. I mean, we got the Rumble coming up. So, I’m going to be watching it very closely to see who ends up winning that and then I’m going to be watching even closer to see if they decide to make the dumb decision in choosing me.”
This interview clearly happened before the Rumble, which Bayley won. Then, in a move shocking absolutely no one, she chose Ripley to challenge at WrestleMania XL.
Ripley has already carved a trailblazing path through the WWE. She’s come a long way since her humble Adelaide beginnings in the 90s, rising to become the first Australian female champion in WWE. She’s been the Raw Women’s Champion, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion, won the SmackDown Women’s Championship, scored the title of WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion, and WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion. She’s also been Riot City Wrestling Women’s Champion, though that is a somewhat less prestigious belt than the ones WWE gives out. Basically, she has done just about everything you can currently do as a woman in WWE. But her plan for what comes next is to just keep trying to do more.
“I don’t like setting goals, because I believe that once you reach that goal, you stop wanting to achieve more. So, I leave it open. I just want to make as much history as I possibly can and do as many amazing things as I possibly can. I don’t really have a limit to the success that I want to accomplish.”
While she doesn’t want to have a to-do list, she is clear on what she wants her legacy to be:
“I want to be remembered as the woman that changed the game. The woman that wasn’t afraid of a fight, whether it be with a female or male, one that helped elevate the women’s division in a different way where it’s opened doors for other women to accomplish more. And that’s really, at the end of the day, what we all want to do because we want to see this women’s division grow. We want to make a point, and that point is that we can go just like the men can, and if not, we can go even more. We’re here to prove a point. We think that we deserve the opportunities, and if you’re not going to give them to us, we’re going to take them. I want to be the leader of that.”
Hopefully, Ripley gets to take the next step towards building that legacy in WrestleMania XL. But, before then, you can play out parts of her journey in WWE 2K24 when it launches on the 8th of March.
The author travelled to Sydney as a guest of 2K Games.
Image: 2K
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