YMMV / Rhea Ripley

• Adorkable: She's a massive comic book and anime geek, and seeing her gush over her favourite shows is just about the most endearing thing ever.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome/Awesome Moment of Crowning: Rhea winning the 2023 Royal Rumble match victory entering from number 1, the number of which is usually regarded as a disadvantageous position, last eliminating Liv Morgan, who entered at number 2. She would later top this by taking out SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39 in an absolute firestorm of a match - considered by Dave Meltzer to be one of the greatest women's matches ever produced and would be voted Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Match of the Year - and becoming by far the youngest Grand Slam Champion in WWE history in the process, at all of 26 years old.
• Designated Villain: In her feud with Charlotte Flair on the Road to WrestleMania 39, Rhea is treated as the heel for being a member of a heel team and corrupting Dominik Mysterio, even getting him to disrespect his own father. Charlotte, meanwhile, like most of her babyface runs, acts nothing like a face and is an even bigger bully than Rhea, especially when she continues to lock the Figure Eight on Shotzi, a fellow babyface, on one episode on SmackDown even after the match is over for no reason. Because of this, fans saw their match more as heel vs. heel. Not only that, fans are more supportive of Rhea due to her being the underdog of the feud who had two title reigns ended by Charlotte in the past, as well as Charlotte being a Creator's Pet.
  • This is also the case for most of her singles feuds after becoming champion. She fights mostly clean, eschews outside interference for the most part, and has even been positioned as an obvious underdog in some situations. Really, the most villainous things about her are being in onscreen friendships/relationships with a handful of jerks.
  • Rhea's injury and vacating of the title a week after WrestleMania XL was played up as a genuinely heartbreaking moment and a tragic cutting short of a title reign that had lasted a year and showed no signs of slowing down. Despite being a de jure heel for her reign, Rhea garnered enough sympathy that a tremendous amount of heel heat immediately began coming down on Liv Morgan instead for causing the injury, effectively jumpstarting a planned Face/Heel Double-Turn between the two well ahead of schedule.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • A very literal version since she actually wears black leather to the ring. Rhea is very much presented as a heel but whenever she's removed from the rest of the Judgement Day, the crowds react massively to her as a face.
  • This is on full display on the 4/15/2024 Raw when Ripley has to vacate her Women’s World Championship due to injury, which is blamed on an attack by Liv Morgan the week before. The Montreal crowd isn’t happy about it at all (cue enormous chants of "Bullshit!" from the crowd over the decision) and booed Liv even though she’s clearly right to hate Ripley given their history. The online commenters came to Liv’s defense.
• Growing the Beard: While her as a face was good in 2021-2022... it didn't at all capitalize on her success in NXT and she seemed to be destined to become an after thought with her face run being stale. However... when she joined Judgment Day after WrestleMania Backlash 2022, everything changed. She was treated as a star, won the rumble from number 1 and became the Women's World Champion at WrestleMania 39 and having a dominant reign that sadly ended due to injury
• Les Yay: Her brief tag team run with Liv Morgan featured a lot of this, the two often acting like a giggling schoolgirl couple in promos and on social media, Liv constantly jumping into Rhea's arms and Rhea carrying her like a new bride, and any unfair attacks against Liv in the ring apparently setting off Rhea's Berserk Button. It was so strong that when Rhea turned on Liv to end the partnership (becoming a heel in the process), it was treated online like the break-up of a relationship, especially by Liv, who made many posts on social media that came across as what you'd see from a jilted lover.
  • A viral moment hit of Rhea at a house show sitting in front of ring announcer Samantha Irwin, smiling and waving to her in a very flirtatious manner before blowing a kiss and walking away. When someone off-camera asks Samantha what she thought, Samantha sheepishly acknowledges “I like it” and then awkwardly giggles.
• LGBT Fanbase: Rhea has a massive lesbian fanbase for whom the descriptor "thirsty" would be a severe understatement. She is very aware of her fanbase, and is not averse to teasing them, either on RAW/Smackdown or over social media.
• Magnificent Bitch: Ripley has played this to a ‘T’ ever since joining the Judgment Day and been its leader except in name. It was she who turned Dominik against his father Rey Mysterio to the point that Dominik rejects any and all attempts at reconciliation from Rey - also his mother and sister - and even spends months tormenting him even after Rey avoids fighting him. She has been compared to Chyna given their tendencies to attack other men as well as their similar looks. Ripley gladly attacks the males knowing they won’t raise a hand to her. Rhea is good at keeping order in the faction too, among other things agreeing with Damian Priest that he should lead their team at Survivor Series ‘23. Even after they lose, they don’t hold any ill will towards him.
• Memetic Molester: From her rather strange way of pinning an opponent to her borderline BDSM method of trying to recruiting Dominik Mysterio into the Judgement Day (like crushing him under her thighs and telling him that she's "his papi" for example), Rhea being one of these is the subject of many jokes.
• Rooting for the Empire: The aforementioned Designated Villain example at WrestleMania 39, thanks in part to the amount of X-Pac Heat and Creator's Pet that historically surrounded her opponent, culminating in the entire stadium being firmly on Rhea's side in the match. This has only amplified the longer her title reign has gone, and was exemplified in her title defence against Nia Jax at Elimination Chamber 14, where Jax was actively booed and Rhea cheered by the crowd, despite the match being firmly heel versus heel^note Of course, the match taking place in Rhea's native Australia definitely played a part; it's been well-established that non-US wrestlers will almost always be cheered by the crowds in their home country, even if they're currently the most despicable heel on the roster.
• Spiritual Successor: She's often been compared to both Chyna and Beth Phoenix, both in terms of her harder-edged, masculine style and her willingness to throw down with male wrestlers on the roster (and in the case of Chyna, her very hard-edged, almost dominatrix-like presentation). She's openly stated that both women were a massive influence on her and it's hard to deny that she's definitely pulled inspiration from both with her wrestling style and characterisation over the years.