Rhea Ripley is not losing any sleep over the black eye she walked away with from her February 20 SmackDown match against Giulia, and she wants to make clear that what fans saw on screen was considerably more dramatic than what she actually felt.
Speaking with SHAK Wrestling, Ripley addressed the visible bruising, which had already drawn attention after she posted about the injury on Instagram. Watching the footage back gave her a moment of appreciation for how it looked, even if the actual experience was far less alarming than the image suggested.
"It looked so brutal, and watching it back I was like, 'Oh, okay — well, that looked good at least.' But actually feeling it — I don't know if I've just been so acclimated to being hit in the face, but it wasn't that bad," Ripley said. "Like, yeah, it looked bad. It gave me a black eye, but I've got a hard face."
She also revealed that instinct kicked in at the right moment to prevent the situation from being considerably worse, referencing a previous nose injury she had no interest in repeating.
"The black eye was the least of my concerns there. Yeah, I turned my face just in time — I wasn't going to break my nose again. I'm not going through that," Ripley said.
Ripley is scheduled to challenge Jade Cargill for the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 42 on Night Two, April 19, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
