10 Things We Learned From Rhea Ripley On Stephanie McMahon's WWE Show
6. HBK Says She’s PC’s Most Impressive Success Story
Shawn Michaels has earned a lot of praise for the way he's won back the NXT brand from Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard's notoriously rough NXT 2.0 experiment. Since ditching that, WWE's third show has become a haven for creativity and development yet again. Michaels is the overseer; he's in largely the same role his good buddy Triple H was before him.
Stephanie didn't spend too much time talking to HBK on this week's episode, but she did catch a word with the NXT chief to ask him about Rhea Ripley. He recalls being in and around the Performance Center when Rhea first started finding her feet. Though she was only 20 years old, Ripley made a splash because people could see there was something special waiting to surface.
It was only a matter of time before she showed the world what she was truly capable of, according to Shawn.
He thinks it’s incredible that she’s come this far and gone from PC rookie to one of WWE’s biggest stars. Going further, Michaels said that people like Rhea make the facility look even more impressive on the outside. That's high praise indeed from one of WWE's biggest legends and most influential management figures.
McMahon didn't show Ripley these comments, because she had some others in mind for that, but Rhea would surely be honoured by what Michaels had to say about her. Shawn was very careful to avoid calling Ripley one of the best stars in the women's division. He reckons she's a big star irrespective of genders or different divisions on the TV shows, and says she should be considered one of the building's biggest success stories.
It's impossible to argue with that.