The stinkface of Rhea Ripley that went viral on social media has been officially approved by the master of the move – WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi.
At a recent WWE live event, Ripley hit the move on Nia Jax. The following night, Shayna Baszler would request being hit with Rhea’s stinkface, but Jax blocked this request.
On a recent edition of his “Rikishi Fatu Off The Top” podcast, Rikishi weighed in on Ripley’s use of the move. He said,
“I got texts, videos sent to me, Instagram, TikTok, on the Twitter, whatever. I was wondering why the hell everybody’s tagging me on this. So I popped it open, man, and there was Rhea Ripley. Rhea was backing it up, boy. She lift them tights up, them wasabi. The wasabi, it was kind of wanting to do its own thing. She’s doing her thing, man, and a big shout-out to Rhea. It’s funny to me, to be able to see the new generation out there backing it up and keeping it going,”
While Rikishi likes Ripley using the move, Rhea’s WrestleMania 40 opponent Becky Lynch has argued that the move is a step backwards for women in wrestling.