Rhea Ripley Shares How Tegan Nox Helped Saved Her WWE Career Twice
Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox began their WWE careers around the same time.
In 2017, both Ripley and Nox were preparing to be a part of the first-ever Mae Young Classic Tournament. However, Nox wasn’t able to compete due to her first torn ACL right before the tournament. When the tournament returned the following year, Nox wrestled against Ripley in the quarter-finals match, yet she tore her ACL once again.
Last week, Nox was named one of WWE releases after being drafted to Monday Night Raw. Ripley had a lot of positive comments to say about “the girl with the shiniest wizard.”
“Tegan is someone I hold very, very dear to my heart. I know that I might have been a bit harsh on social media after the whole injury in the Mae Young Classic, but that whole time that I was posting those, I did feel awful because she did help me through a lot,” said Ripley.
“Tegan, she doesn’t understand how much I appreciate her and what she’s done for me. But there was a time at the Performance Center where my name was on the list to get fired, and I’d only been there for a year. I don’t know why my name was on the list, and I guess people didn’t like me at the time. It is what it is – I changed their mind! But I was on the chopping block, and I had a PC live match in front of all our peers, and it was against Tegan.”
“One of the guys found out I was on that list, and he told her – he didn’t tell me because he knew I’d freak out – but he told her and was like ‘look, you’ve got to make Rhea look good because this might be her last match here otherwise.’ And that’s exactly what she did. Even though it was in front of our peers – and that’s the terrifying time to have a match – she made me look like an absolute star. She took everything of mine and made me look so incredible that it got my name taken off that list. And that was just one of the times!”
Currently, Ripley is one-half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions with Nikki A.S.H. She is the first and only woman thus far to hold both the NXT UK and NXT Women’s Championships.
Ripley continued to express her gratitude for Nox as she recalls their experience in the Mae Young Classic and shared how upset she was to found out that her friend not with her in WWE to have another match on screen together.
Rhea Ripley vs. Tegan Nox – Mae Young Classic 2018
“The other time was in the Mae Young Classic. She got injured, and I really wish it didn’t happen, but if that didn’t happen, honestly – even though it sucked for her and I wish it didn’t happen – that skyrocketed my career because no one believed in me before then,” the former RAW Women’s Champion said.
But because that happened, I was forced to go into that match with Io [Shirai], and we pulled off such a fantastic match people had to book me. They knew that I was a rising star. So, she not only helped me on purpose, but she helped me by accident as well. I love Tegan so much, and I’m so upset that she’s not here with me, and I wish that we finally got to have another match on TV because it never got to happen.”
“I felt so bad. After it happened and she got her surgery – her second surgery because she’d already done her other knee – after she’d got the surgery, I took my dog over to her house because I knew that she loved dogs, and I just let her play with my pup. I’m sorry, pet my dog!”
Tegan Nox revealed that she wasn’t injured before her release, but here at Women’s Wrestling Talk, we hope to be the shiniest wizard soon.