Rhea Ripley On Why She Had To Change Entrance When Coming To WWE

WWE WrestleMania 36 will include the first time an NXT title is defended at the show of shows. Rhea Ripley will defend the NXT Women’s Title against Charlotte Flair. Their entrances would have looked great inside Raymond James Stadium, but they had to settle for the WWE Performance Center.

Rhea Ripley recently spoke to Loud Wire about her WWE entrance. She used to do something more like Shinsuke Nakamura’s pose in her entrance on the indies. She had to change it up after arriving to WWE

Oh man, I came to a road bump where I didn’t know what I wanted to do in my entrance, because back home in Australia, I’d come out and start headbanging. I used to come out to Of Mice & Men, ‘Second and Sebring.’ I absolutely love that song and I love that band. I ended up doing the Nakamura back bend on the apron while headbanging, so I had to change it all up.

I wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but then I remembered Mitch always doing his stomp and how impactful it was to everyone in the pit, just how cool it looks. After I worked out the stomp in my entrance for ‘Final Straw,’ they ended up changing my song. I was in cahoots with the music people, trying to get them to put a scream in a certain place so I could get the stomp in.

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When I was younger, Suicide Silence and Mitch Lucker were a big part of my life. I listened to them all the time. I cried when Mitch died, so I wanted something in there that reminds me of everything. It even reminds me of school and everything that I’ve been through and now I’m walking down the ramp to a WWE ring to go do my job. Some of the fans even put my photo and his photo together and I think that’s super super cool.

Mitch Lucker passed away in 2012, but odds are he would be very happy to see this great tribute from Rhea Ripley.