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Rhea Ripley Reveals Mental And Physical Struggles Over Past Year In WWE

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Jon Alba | Last updated May 6, 2025 5:39 PM ET

Rhea Ripley is building a WWE Hall of Fame resume for herself, but the path through her biggest run to date has not been an easy one to travel.

Ripley defeated Becky Lynch at WrestleMania XL last April, cementing her standing in WWE by defeating one of the biggest stars in the industry. But just days later, she was ambushed by Liv Morgan on Monday Night Raw, suffering a legitimate injury in the process.

The 28-year-old was diagnosed with an AC sprain in her shoulder that would keep her out of action for several months, resulting in the WWE Women's World Championship being stripped from her position. She opened up in an interview with Wide World of Sports about how difficult the recovery process was.

"When you get injured, you learn a lot about yourself and 2024 was not very kind to me, I did a Grade 3 AC sprain and then finally came back from that, which was so tough, not being able to do things that I love like going to the gym or holding my dogs."

It definitely was a mental struggle and also a physical struggle - training legs every single day was terrible, but I finally came back and I got to go for my world championship again and try and grab that back - but then I broke my orbital bone (eye socket)."Rhea Ripley

The barrage of bruises wore heavily on her, but Ripley revealed she came out of it for the better.

"It was just injuries flying left and right, but I learned a lot about myself in that I can pretty much overcome whatever is in my way and that's such a strong thing to realize," she said.