Rhea Ripley picks WWE Bad Blood stipulation that will make Rey Mysterio proud
Ever since Rhea Ripley had to surrender her Woman's World Championship over the summer and Liv Morgan finished off her "Revenge Tour" with a big-time win at King and Queen of the Ring in Saudi Arabia, a "fair" title match between the duo has felt inevitable, but how would WWE make that happen?
"Dirty" Dominik Mysterio interfered at SummerSlam, where he turned heel on his heel girlfriends to become an even bigger heel; played a role in their match at Bash in Berlin, where the duo were defeated by the Terror Twins, and expects to play a role in their one-on-one title match at Bad Blood too, what with his fingerprints being on darn-near every Women's Championship match for the last year plus.
Well, on the penultimate RAW before Bad Blood, Ripley figured out a way to make sure he isn't involved in the final decision in Atlanta, and needless to say, the stipulation she cleared with Adam Pearce will have fans – and Rey Mysterio – beaming with joy.
"Oh Liv, that's actually not what I wanted to say. No, when it comes to Bad Blood, I'm fully cleared. This message is actually for both of you; since Dom, you always wanted to stick your nose into Woman's World Championship business," Ripley explained. "You know, you're the only reason Liv won my title in the first place; you're the only reason LIV has retained that Championship every single match. Adam Pearce has decided something: Dom, at Bad Blood, you are going to be exactly where you are supposed to be; Dom, at Bad Blood, you are going to be exactly where you deserve to be: behind bars. Because in our Championship match, you're gonna be hanging in a shark cage. So Liv, at Bad Blood, when there is whether to run and nowhere to hide, and no one to help you win, I'm going to win back the one thing that I never lost: my Woman's World Championship."
A Shark Cage match? A freakin' Shark Cage match? Is this a match where the winner has to free "Dirty" Dom? Or is this more of a spectacular way to keep Mysterio from interfering, which he has a tendency to do? Either way, considering the younger Mysterio once had his custody wrestled for in a bout between Rey and Eddie Guerrero, which similarly saw the duo have to duke it out for a briefcase hanging above a ladder, it's safe to assume anyone with knowledge of WWE history – or just a flair for the dramatics – will appreciate what Paul "Triple H" Levesque has put together.
Rhea Ripley is still a fan of WWE Live shows
While WWE is slowly moving away from a robust house show schedul e, with TKO announcing that they will pull back the calendar in 2025, one wrestler who may feel disappointed by this development is Ripley, who recently told WAAY 31 that she is a massive fan of working house shows. Why? Because it allows her to work on her stuff and better interact with fans on a more personal level.
"A lot. I feel like, even though the PLEs and TV are like what you really want to be on, like they're really the amazing things that help you become the person you are on screen that everyone learns to love or learns to hate — I feel like the live events are like where the fun really is, you know? You get to interact with the crowd that little bit more because you're not catering to the people at home watching through the screen; we get to actually interact and do fun and funny stuff," Ripley explained via Fightful.
"I don't know, there's something about the traveling life like, yeah, it does suck being in the car and the planes, but it's fun at the same time because you're doing it with your best friends and you're going out there and getting the reactions that you want, whether it's cheers or boos. You're going out there and getting a reaction, and you're either being nice to fans and high-fiving them, or you're being a menace to them like I normally am and like untying their shoelaces or stealing their water and giving them cool little memories to remember for the rest of their life because like as a kid, that's all I ever wanted watching wrestling. I would go to riot wrestling shows and if someone even glanced in my direction, I'd be like, 'Oh my god, they looked at me.' It's just those cool little things and interactions and special moments and bonds that you get with the fans and I love it."
While her "Terror Twin" might not feel the same way about house shows, as he famously had to pass on a role in Marvel's Black Panther because Vince McMahon didn't want to let him out of prior obligations, if Ripley sees value in the experience, then good on her, as she's had to take part in 175 over her WWE career thus far, with plenty more on the schedule moving forward.
