Rhea Ripley has spent nearly 14 years putting her body through professional wrestling, and she’s feeling every bit of it now. While recovering from knee surgery, the former Women’s World Champion has revealed just how beat up she feels on a regular basis, admitting her lower back, hips and knees are all “pretty shot.”
While speaking with Jesse James West during a tour of her home gym, Ripley explained why she uses a pendulum squat instead of doing traditional barbell squats. It isn’t simply a training preference anymore, as her body apparently doesn’t handle regular squats particularly well after years in the ring.
“I’m not very good at squats to begin with. Wrestling, my lower back, my hips, my knees, everything is, like, pretty shot. So I can’t squat with, like, a bar. This is the only thing that my body likes right now.”
That wear and tear isn’t limited to the gym either. When Ripley was asked whether wrestling leaves her feeling physically broken every week, she didn’t exactly hesitate: “Yeah. Pretty much.” Wrestling itself isn’t the only thing beating her up. Ripley explained that WWE’s constant travel can leave her hurting too, with longer flights apparently taking a particularly rough toll on her hips.
“And it’s like even just from the flying, like my hips after flying, especially if it’s to the West Coast. Like, I’m not going to be able to walk properly.”
Ripley’s comments come while she’s already sidelined following surgery for a torn meniscus. She underwent the procedure in August after the injury failed to heal without surgery, admitting at the time that years of wrestling and sports had finally caught up with her.
“After just under 14 years in wrestling and doing sports my entire life, it’s caught up to me. Surgery was never a first option for me, but it got to the point that it was needed.”
She has since been spotted wearing a large knee brace and using crutches as she begins the recovery process. Ripley still hasn’t revealed whether doctors repaired the meniscus or removed the damaged portion, so there remains no firm timetable for her WWE return.
Ripley isn’t saying these physical issues will keep her from wrestling again, but her comments give fans a much clearer idea of what her body is dealing with after nearly 14 years in the business. Between a lower back, hips and knees she describes as “pretty shot” and feeling “pretty much” broken every week, getting through WWE’s schedule has clearly become a battle of its own.
Are you surprised by how much wear and tear Rhea Ripley says she deals with every week from wrestling? Let us know in the comments.
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