WWE champion Rhea Ripley’s surprising reaction meeting hometown fans

She’s the most accomplished Australian ever in her field but this world-conquering Adelaide export says she was stunned by local fans on her most recent trip home.

Australia’s most successful ever professional wrestler says she’s been blown away by Adelaide’s reaction to her show-stealing performance on her industry’s biggest stage earlier this year.

Speaking to The Advertiser in one of her first post-Wrestlemania interviews, WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley said she was stunned to see the response from local fans, as well as friends and family and the media.

WWE superstar Rhea Ripley with friends during her recent return to Adelaide earlier in May. Picture: Instagram

Rhea Ripley poses for a selfie with a fan at Henley Beach in May. Picture: Instagram

“It was a very overwhelming bunch of feedback really. I was getting messages left, right and centre from family and friends, and then seeing all the articles that were going out it was just very amazing to see. It was really cool,” Ripley said.

“It made me miss home a lot. Being on the front page of The Advertiser was just incredible.”

“My partner actually got that blown up in a big frame, so I came home to that and I have that forever now, which is really, really, cool.”

The marquee WWE star, who regularly interacts with her millions of devoted social media followers, said her recent trip home following the death of her beloved Nonna had also proved to be a surprising culture shock though.

“There was a lot [of fans]!

“It’s funny because I totally wasn’t in work mode, so every time someone came up to me I was so thrown off because I’m just not used to that in Australia,” she said.

Adelaide’s Rhea Ripley (Demi Bennett) at Wrestlemania 39 in LA. Picture: WWE

“Just walking around down at Henley Square, at Harbour Town West Lakes Shopping Centre and getting people legit like running up to me like, ‘Rhea, Rhea, Rhea, I can’t believe it’s you’ and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, that is me’.”

Ripley’s short trips home to Australia in February and May were her first in the four years since signing a WWE contract and moving overseas.

Rhea Ripley’s Wrestlemania moment

The former Henley High student, whose real name is Demi Bennett, became WWE’s most decorated female wrestler in April when she claimed the SmackDown Women’s title from legendary female performer Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania 39 at Los Angele’s SoFi Stadium in front of more than 80,000 fans.

Rhea Ripley (Demi Bennett) on the front page of the April 3 edition of The Advertiser.

WWE star Rhea Ripley in Adelaide with her Nonna and her partner, fellow Aussie export and All Elite Wrestling star Buddy Matthews during a trip home in February. Picture: @rhearipley/Instagram

Fans and critics hailed the performance as a show-stealer that firmly established the 26-year-old as Australia’s most successful pro-wrestling export, as well as one of the most significant female performers of all time.

Since April, Ripley has continued her fan-favourite run alongside Dominik Mysterio, Finn Bálor and Damien Priest as part of the WWE’s popular Judgement Day storyline, which also saw her step into the ring in front of a red hot Puerto Rico crowd with local hero Zelina Vega earlier this month.

She is next set to perform at WWE’s Night of Champion’s premium event in a match with Natalya, the niece of 1990’s fan favourite Bret “Hitman” Hart in the Jeddah Super Dome in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

WWE Night of Champions streams live on Sunday, May 28 from 2.30am ACST on BINGE