Rhea Ripley was nearly forced to miss WrestleMania 41 due to a severe back injury, the former champion revealed in a recent interview. Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ripley detailed the intense pain she was in just days before the biggest show of the year.
“WrestleMania 41, I didn’t think I was going to be able to compete because my back was so bad leading up to it,” Ripley stated.
The situation was so dire that she required intensive, last-minute treatment just to be able to make her entrance. Ripley admitted that it’s an ongoing issue that she has to manage, though she also takes some of the blame for not keeping up with her stretches.
“The two nights beforehand, I got [my masseuse] Matthew to come to my room, and he worked on me the night before Hall of Fame and the night of Hall of Fame,” she explained. “I was like, ‘I need you to make sure I can walk tomorrow.’ And he worked on me those two nights, and it loosened completely just in time for the match.
It gets really bad,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s a sciatic thing or whatnot, or just my body in itself, the shape of my body and how I’m put together. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s something. But it does go down, and it definitely revs up sometimes, and sometimes it’s just bearable.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight With Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
