WWE’s Rhea Ripley says wrestling is more metal than ever

(Image credit: WWE Corp)

WWE superstar and Raw Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley knows a thing or two about heavy music: she looks metal as fuck, pays homage to former Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker’s ‘deathcore stomp’ in her entrance, has Ash Costello from New Years Day singing her entrance theme and spends just about every moment she’s not in the ring or at the gym poring over Motionless In White videos.

“I love Motionless In White,” she explains in a new interview for the Metal Hammer Podcast, days ahead of her title defence at Wrestlemania Backlash this Sunday. “I don’t know [why], it’s just their style of music, and I love watching their music videos as well. I get so distracted watching them, sometimes I’ll just play them and I’ll sit there watching them like a movie for hours.

“I still remember the first time I got to see them live: it was at Soundwave in Australia; I only knew a couple of their songs, and honestly, from 100, 150 metres away, I heard a song that I knew and was like, ‘Oh my god!’ I left my friends and my family behind, I was running and I just jumped straight into the middle of the mosh pit.”

We also asked Rhea if she thinks wrestling has become more metal than ever, with metal-repping superstars like herself, Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins dominating the scene and the likes of Code Orange, Power Trip and Poppy performing on NXT.

“Yeah, definitely,” she says. “Especially in NXT, I feel like that’s where metal really thrives. I absolutely love that about NXT because it makes it so unique. They’re really catering to my metal people, which I love…and it’s great, because you’ll get little kids growing up that’ll be just like me! Haha!’

She also comments on Slipknot’s All Out Life being the official theme song of NXT, adding: “It’s amazing. I love it - I downloaded it straight away, as soon as [the theme] got changed to Slipknot. I was like, ‘This is a banger!’”

Rhea defends the WWE Raw Women’s Championship against Asuka and Charlotte Flair this Sunday at Wrestlemania Backlash - watch via Peacock in the US and via the WWE Network everywhere else.

Listen to the full interview with Rhea on the new episode of the Metal Hammer Podcast.

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