Rhea Ripley emerged victorious at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event after entering at number one and lasting over an hour in the match. Following the Royal Rumble, Rhea Ripley appeared on RAW and expressed her desire to challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 39. She cited her loss to Charlotte at WrestleMania 36, where the roles were entirely reversed, and the NXT Women’s Championship was on the line.
Speaking on Sportskeeda’s Writing with Russo podcast, former WWE head writer Vince Russo suggested future course of action surrounding Rhea Ripley, stressing on the necessity for her to eliminate the “goth stuff” and turn babyface. He said,
“So now, you’re getting into that Roman Reigns area again. I would do it, bro, if the plans were to slowly but surely turn Rhea Ripley babyface. Get rid of all that goth stuff; let’s really see what a beautiful woman she is if that were the plan. If she is the heel WWE Women’s Champion, I mean, what are we going to do, have Becky beat her? Like, how many times are we going to go back to that well? And if it’s not Becky, then who is it?”
“I believe Rhea Ripley can beat Charlotte Flair. Rhea Ripley is a beast. She is a big woman. I’d believe that if she beats Charlotte, I believe it. But my problem really is, bro, so now would you have Rhea Ripley as a heel champion, and then because she is bigger and just more impressive than the other girls? You know, we’ve got the Candice LeRaes, and we’ve got the Alexa Blisses, we’ve got these girls that are like, Rhea Ripley would kill them!”
The legendary Jim Cornette, who is known to be a huge fan of Ripley’s character work and in-ring skills, has now responded to the comments made by Vince Russo.
Speaking on his Drive-Thru Podcast, Cornette highlighted how Ripley’s aesthetic and personality helps her stand out from the rest of the roster, but not before sneaking in some thinly veiled insults at his sworn enemy, “s**tstain.” Cornette said,
“He thinks everyone should look like his plastic idol Sable did in 1998. He’s scared of an actual star-looking woman. He thinks they won’t accept her as a babyface because she’s got that — That look is why they’re accepting her now. It’s also not only more modern but it’s different and she looks like she needs to be in an action movie.”
“Dip sh*t, he brings up the perfect point as to why so many potential talents get disrupted, because he wants to take someone that changed herself from that look that looked like everybody else, into somebody that looks completely different and is a more unique personality.”
Jim Cornette did not hold back in his praise for Ripley, and you can check out the full clip below: