Rhea Ripley explains how she became known as ‘Mami’ in WWE.
The top company star and current reigning women’s champion spoke on this topic during a recent interview with Sam Roberts from his NotSamWrestling program. Ripley states that she initially wanted to be known as ‘Papi,’ and recalls wearing an Eddie Guerrero shirt to make that happen. When she was told that she wouldn’t be able to take that nickname, her fellow Judgment Day member Damian Priest suggested that ‘Mami’ could work.
[Mami] was a Priest thing. I went out there, came back after kneeing myself in the face and busting my front two teeth, I had braces for a week, it was great. I came back from that, and we came back on Rey’s anniversary. That’s where I decided to be a little menace, be myself, and I ordered an Eddie Guerrero shirt and I came out with ‘I’m Your Papi’ shirt, just to see what the hell was going to happen from that. That was a me call and just me doing something that I thought was right and I wanted to stir the pot a little bit. I started the whole Papi thing, I got told I couldn’t be Papi, so Priest was like, ‘Well, you’re Mami.’ I was like, ‘Damn straight I’m Mami. We’re going to roll with that.’ The Mami thing makes me feel comfortable. I just got out there and I’m a child version of myself. I go out there, have fun, do little menace things, make fun of people. Just going out there and having fun.
In a separate interview, Ripley gave her thoughts on Montez Ford and Bianca Belair’s new Hulu reality series entitled Love & WWE. Check out what Mami had to say about the show here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
