Biography
Rhea Ripley is the Adelaide-born powerhouse who has become one of the defining women of WWE's modern era. A Triple Crown and Grand Slam champion with world title reigns on both Raw and SmackDown, she won the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 42 in April 2026, but a knee injury has kept her off television since early summer.
She debuted for Riot City Wrestling in South Australia in June 2013, aged just 16, wrestling as Demi Bennett and twice winning the RCW Women's Championship. Tours of Japan followed before WWE signed her in 2017 for the first Mae Young Classic. Renamed Rhea Ripley, she reached the semi-finals of the 2018 tournament and that summer won the tournament to crown the first NXT UK Women's Champion, holding the belt until Toni Storm took it back at TakeOver: Blackpool in January 2019.
Returning to NXT in Florida with a darker, harder-edged look, she dethroned Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship in December 2019 before losing it to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36. Called up to Raw in March 2021, she beat Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 37, and later that year held the WWE Women's Tag Team titles with Nikki A.S.H.
The real breakthrough came in 2022 when she turned on Liv Morgan and joined The Judgment Day alongside Damian Priest, Finn Bálor and Dominik Mysterio. Her on-screen 'Mami' partnership with Dominik made her one of the most talked-about acts in the company. In January 2023 she became the first woman to win the Royal Rumble from the number one spot, then beat Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship in a WrestleMania 39 classic. The belt was rebranded as the Women's World Championship and she held it for 380 days, beating Becky Lynch at WrestleMania XL, before a genuine arm injury forced her to vacate it in April 2024.
Dominik's betrayal later that year turned her into a fan favourite and sparked a long feud with Liv Morgan, which ended when Ripley won the title back on Raw's Netflix debut in January 2025. Iyo Sky took it from her that March, and their triple threat with Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 41 earned five stars from Dave Meltzer. Ripley and Sky then joined forces as Rhiyo, winning the Women's Tag Team Championship in January 2026.
She won the Elimination Chamber in February and beat Jade Cargill for the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 42, moving to SmackDown as champion. She retained against Cargill at Clash in Italy on 31 May but tore her meniscus in the process, and had knee surgery in August. Chelsea Green won an interim title ladder match at SummerSlam, and WWE has since treated Green as the lineal champion. As of October 2026 Ripley remains sidelined with no return date announced.
