Since beginning her career in the WWE back in 20217 under the NXT banner, Rhea Ripley was recognized to be a brute force in the female locker room. With a bit of change in characteristics, unique mannerisms were further inserted into her skill sets to essentially establish her as a bonafide champion in the WWE who is considered a cornerstone figure on the WWE’s main roster.
Part of that uniqueness can be noticed when Rhea Ripley pins her opponents which she famously loves to call the pretzel pin. Instead of hooking the leg, she just climbs on top of her opponents which might be a bit non-PG. Speaking with The Wrestling Classic, the Australian native revealed where the pin came from, and what she used to call it before joining the WWE,
“I’ve been doing the pin since I was a child in Australia. I don’t know, it’s something that like I just kept going like back home we called it the sexy pin, and I just thought it was really funny.”
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Most infamously, Rhea Ripley took part in the Bash in Berlin post-show media scrum to talk about the pin using which she pinned her bitter rival Liv Morgan, earning a win alongside Damian Priest over the team of Morgan and Dominik Mysterio at the international PLE. It was then that the pin was referred to as the pretzel pin.
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Rhea Ripley hesitated before doing the stink face in the WWE
Moving on in the conversation on The Wrestling Classic, Rhea Ripley also recalled her viral stink face moment against Nia Jax from a WWE house show. Continuing her in-ring shenanigans, she also ended up licking both Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio on live television since her 2024 summer return. It appears that she moved forward with both these moves after initial hesitation.
“The stink face, it was like kind of spur of the moment to see how far I would go. Little bit of chatter about it beforehand but I didn’t know how comfortable I was going to be in that moment … I was like what do I do before the stink face, and I started like thinking too much in my head and then I was like you know what, I’m just gonna do it,” stated Rhea Ripley. (quotes courtesy Wrestling INC)
It was also revealed that licking Dominik Mysterio’s face was planned since it happened after a promo session on Raw. In contrast, licking Liv Morgan at Bash in Berlin was a completely momentary idea. Staring at Dominik, she just wanted to spread a defiant vibe to her ex-on-screen boyfriend which led her to do the antics.
