WWE legend made Rhea Ripley train against male wrestlers

Rhea Ripley wrestled against men during her WWE training.
Rhea Ripley wrestled against men during her WWE training.

WWE legend Scotty 2 Hotty put current superstars Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez up against male performers during their time at the WWE Performance Center.

Since their WWE careers began, Ripley and Gonzalez have been dominant forces, capturing the NXT Women's Championship and Ripley winning the RAW Women's title at WrestleMania 37.

During their time at the WWE Performance Center, the two superstars were trained by former tag team champion Scotty 2 Hotty. In a recent interview with Alistair McGeorge of The Metro, Scotty spoke of how Ripley and Gonzalez wrestled when placed against the more minor female performers:

"I asked for her specifically – her and Raquel. I'd never had any women in my classes before. I just thought, I’d watched them wrestling some of the other girls, and the girls were so small, it just looked like they were afraid to hurt them." (H/T - Metro)

Scotty 2 Hotty went on to say how he decided to put both stars in the ring to train with male performers in the hope of installing confidence in the future champions:

"I was like, let’s put them in there with some guys. At the time, I had Lio Rush, Fabian Marcel, Ricochet and those two ladies in my class. The confidence started to come, working with those guys, following, not having to think. It just continued with both of them, and it’s been awesome to see."

In 2021, both Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez captured WWE championship gold.


Scotty 2 Hotty calls Raquel Gonzalez and Rhea Ripley his wrestling daughters

With the amount of time Scotty spent training both Gonzalez & Ripley, he got to know them on a professional level and a personal one. Continuing his conversation with The Metro, 2 Hotty labeled the two stars his wrestling daughters:

"I call those two my wrestling daughters. It is, NXT was always kinda like high school, and then they’d finish high school and go off to college. Next thing you know they’re standing in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania. It’s awesome to see."

With Ripley and Gonzalez still relatively new to WWE, there are many more world title victories down the line for the two Performance Center graduates.

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