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Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez have had their on-screen battles in the past. The most memorable being at NXT New Year's Evil in January 2021, where Gonzalez defeated Ripley in a Last Woman Standing match.
Ripley is currently performing on WWE RAW, with Raquel Gonzalez still competing in the now rebranded NXT 2.0.
WWE Superstars spend a lot of time with each other, so they are bound to create strong bonds with their fellow performers. This means that behind the scenes, many friendships and relationships are formed.
So are Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez friends in real life?
Yes, they have been friends behind the scenes for several years. The pair bonded during their rise at the Performance Center when they started at the company.
Their friendship goes as far as capturing pictures together all over the world, with Rhea posing as a Koala hugging trees and Raquel on the floor posing as an Armadillo. They named each other Aussie Koala and Texas Armadillo, referring to the locations where they were born:
The former RAW Women's Champion revealed in April 2021 that she and Gonzalez received help from recently released trainer Scotty 2 Hotty during their time on NXT:
"I think one of the main ones in NXT that helped me and Raquel is Scotty 2 Hotty. He had always been there for us through everything. We went through a real hard point together in NXT where Raquel and I were the only two females in Scotty’s class. Scotty was there to help us through that rough time and he still helps us today," said Rhea Ripley. (h/t Metro)
How many times did Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez face each other in NXT?
Ripley and Gonzalez squared off against each other twice in NXT.
Their first battle was at NXT's Halloween Havoc special in 2020. The pair squared off in a 13-minute match that was won by Ripley. Their second contest was the Last Woman Standing match at New Year's Evil, which was won by Raquel Gonzalez.
The duo have been involved in a number of multi-woman matches, with their last being in a WarGames match in December 2020. Gonzalez's team consisting of Candice LaRae and Toni Storm, defeated Rhea's team consisting of Shotzi, Ember Moon, and Io Shirai.
