Add as a preferred source on Google Rhea Ripley revealed new details about the creation of Riptide, the move that became her main finisher in WWE.
Speaking in a recent interview with ESPN’s Omar Raja, the current WWE Women’s Champion said the move came together while she was training with Tegan Nox, as Shane Haste suggested different moves for her to try.
According to Ripley, Haste told her to try a pumphandle slam. She went with the idea, liked how it felt, and started using the finisher during her second Mae Young Classic run in 2018, before moving on to NXT UK.
“I was just trying things. I was practicing with Tegan and Shane was feeding me different moves to try, and he said, ‘try the pump handle slam,’ and I said, ‘okay.’ And I tried it and I said, ‘that’s really cool.’ And I did it for a little bit going into the second Mae Young and then obviously NXT UK.”
“And I would sit out with it and that was the way that I would do it for a while and then my butt just hurt too bad. I said, ‘I can’t do this. This is going to really screw up my back later on.’ So I’m just going to start going to my knees. So that’s how it all came to life. It was really Shane Haste’s idea.”
This Sunday, May 31, Ripley will defend the WWE Women’s Championship against Jade Cargill at WWE Clash in Italy.
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