Rhea Ripley Reveals WrestleMania 39 Match Approach: ‘Follow That’ Mentality

Rhea Ripley recently spoke about her Smackdown Women’s Championship match with Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39 night one on After the Bell with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick. The match may not have main evented the show, but Ripley and Flair went into it with the intention of setting a high bar for the rest of the night.

Ripley acknowledged that she and Flair had received a lot of praise for their match and felt that they had stolen the show. She noted that every time she and Flair step into the ring, they bring a level of brutality and ferocity that resonates with fans. Despite not having a build-up as strong as other matches on the card, Ripley and Flair were determined to prove why they should have been in the main event spot.

The Smackdown Women’s Championship match was not the only time Ripley had a “follow that” mentality. She compared it to the first women’s WarGames match, where the team had shirts with “FTMF” printed on the back, which stood for “Follow That Motherf**kers.”

Ripley admitted to feeling emotionally unstable due to the lack of sleep and the enormity of the moment on the day of the event. However, as soon as she stepped out of the gorilla position and into the spotlight with the fans staring back at her, she switched on and was ready to give her all to steal the show.

“Yeah, I mean it’s a lot how I felt going into the first women’s WarGames match. We had our WarGames shirts, and it was FTMF [‘Follow That Motherf**kers’]. That’s was printed on the back of them, and that was the same mentality that I had going into this WrestleMania. The day of was a complete mess to me, because I was emotionally [laughs] unstable, I want to say? Because of the lack of sleep and everything coming full circle. But I knew that as soon as my music played and I stepped out of gorilla and into the light with all the fans staring back at me, I knew I was going to switch on. And that’s when the Rhea Ripley you see comes out, and that’s when all my confidence comes rushing through my body and I’m going to go out there and do everything I can to steal the show.”

Ripley was proud of the match and the praise they received. She felt that they had gone out there and left everything they had in the ring, proving to everyone why they deserved to be in the main event spot. Despite not closing out the night, they set a high bar for the rest of the show that followed.

What do you think about Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair’s Smackdown Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 39 night one? Did they steal the show as they intended? Leave a comment.