Rhea Ripley Shuts Down Fans Blaming Triple H for Her WrestleMania 40 Confidence Issues

Rhea Ripley isn’t holding back when it comes to setting the record straight about her WrestleMania 40 nerves—and she’s making it crystal clear that Triple H isn’t the one to blame.

Ripley recently opened up about the pressure she faced before her match against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 40 during an interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet. Despite holding the Women’s World Championship, Ripley admitted she was overwhelmed with anxiety leading up to the match.

The nerves weren’t just about the bright lights of WrestleMania. Ripley explained that a combination of Becky Lynch being sick with strep throat and her own insecurities about ring rust caused her confidence to spiral.

“I feel that pressure all the time. I’ve said it before, but WrestleMania 40 against Becky Lynch, I was terrified. I worked myself up so drastically that whole day, and I put so much extra stress on my own shoulders with things that I couldn’t even, they weren’t my responsibilities. I worked myself up because Becky was sick, and I was like okay, well, I need to be at 110% so that I can help her wherever I need to help her.”

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Ripley admitted that not having many matches during her championship reign made her feel rusty—and opened the door for doubts to creep in.

“Then I hadn’t had many matches, so I was like, I need this to be a good match. I need people to remember that I can actually go and I can actually wrestle. Because a lot of the times back then, when I had the championship, I wasn’t wrestling a lot, and that made me a little rusty, then I got self-conscious, and I’m just like, I don’t want to sht the bed. I don’t want to go out there and have a stinker and then have people say, ‘Oh, this is why she shouldn’t be champion.’ ‘She sucks.’ ‘She can’t wrestle.’ ‘She’s overpushed.’ ‘She’s Rhea Hogan.’ I didn’t want all of that to start spiraling, because it does, and it’s hard to escape from.”*

After the interview, some fans on social media immediately blamed Triple H’s booking decisions—mainly Ripley not wrestling frequently—as the reason for her confidence issues. But Ripley wasn’t having it. She fired back at the criticism and pointed the finger elsewhere.

“He’s 100% not to blame. The stupid bully mentality of some people on social media is the blame. Them and the ones that think they can do our jobs better than us, even though they have no experience in this profession or experience in real life.”

Ripley’s message was clear—her struggles with confidence were fueled by online trolls, not WWE’s creative direction.