10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Rhea Ripley

4. Her Main Roster False Start

Rhea Ripley Tegan Nox
WWE.com

It was just ahead of All Elite Wrestling's return to a regular touring schedule for the first time since March 2020 when they ran a video package featuring many of the incredible matches and moments they'd somehow manifested from inside the empty Daily's Place during one of the darker periods in the world's history.

One feels - based on evidence such as this - WWE will do the total opposite when the The ThunderDome closes its doors.

That's not to say there haven't been some decent contests and segments to build up said contests, but this hasn't ever really felt like a time WWE will want to reflect fondly on. In spite of being able to unilaterally control crowd responses and save a fortune on running costs, the fairly sterile crowd-free WWE hasn't shone like the opposition. And never was this clearer than during the pandemic's first few months.

Empty Performance Center events were out of date before the second show had concluded, and WrestleMania in particular felt like a bizarre in-house necessity. Rhea Ripley unfortunately garnered one of the only headlines when she fell to Charlotte Flair with relative ease in the second night's excellent opener.

It was a loss WWE never bothered to try and recover, and one NXT couldn't. The two have feuded for half of 2021 and the mammoth setback has almost never played a part.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett