10 WWE Wrestlers Lost In The Shuffle

2. Rhea Ripley

wrestlers lost in the shuffle
WWE

It might scan as slightly unfair to consider Rhea Ripley "lost" anywhere when she can be found as a featured performer every week on Raw, but her recent alliance with Nikki A.S.H feels like yet another creative misstep for the former NXT Champion.

Having spent half the year with the Raw Women's Championship and still struggled to find her feet, Ripley has rather quickly learned of the fabled fickle finger of fate that is working under Vince McMahon. A feud with Charlotte Flair was one of the worst of the year despite the pair almost salvaging it with a total banger at Money In The Bank, but her title loss there indicated a period of uncertainty that she's yet to break free from.

The positives are these; WWE adores odd couple tag teams so much that it's likely the pair will continue to be featured and score wins over supposedly cohesive units. The negatives are everything else - the very concept is so fatally and fundamentally flawed that whatever the Aussie does next will have to feel like a rebound rather simply moving forward into the next chapter of her story.

She need only look to Shayna Baszler - the woman she shared the credit for NXT's one ratings demographic victory over AEW Dynamite with - to see how that'll probably go.

In this post: 
Rhea Ripley
 
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