10 Wrestlers That Became Stars In ONE SECOND

4. Rhea Ripley (NXT, August 28th 2019)

Donovan DanHausen
WWE

An amazing debut that had a significant and poignant outcome, Rhea Ripley's August 2019 arrival in NXT took a relatively unknown NXT UK Champion and turned her into a major player that could somehow dethrone an unstoppable champion.

Shayna Baszler had luxuriated in her position as an unbeatable NXT titleholder up to that point, but was cut off by Ripley's music, and physically stopped from speaking when 'The Nightmare' took the mic.

Getting right to the point, she said, "I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna say you've beaten everybody here. But you haven't beaten me, b*tch".

The typically-unflappable Baszler was stunned into silence, and bailed from the scene in an attempt to save face on the night. It was an impeccable bit of business, as profoundly proven several months later.

Their long-awaited title fight on December 18th resulted in NXT's only ratings victory over AEW Dynamite. After months of desperately trying to grab for it with weekly hot-shotting, the culmination of a months-long arc got them the result.

In this post: 
AEW Danhausen
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

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