Rhea Ripley Credits Shane Haste For Her Riptide Finishing Move

Rhea Ripley says fellow Aussie and ex-WWE star Shane Haste came up with her finisher.

The Riptide has been a part of Rhea Ripley’s arsenal since arriving in WWE and involves a pumphandle slam where she drops to her knees. Having captured championship gold on several occasions thanks to the manoeuvre, Ripley has now opened up about the origins of The Riptide.

Speaking to ESPN ahead of Clash in Italy, Rhea Ripley discussed how The Riptide came to be and revealed that Shane Haste played a pivotal role in it becoming her finishing move.

“I was just trying things. I was practicing with Tegan [Nox], and Shane was feeding me different moves to try. He’s like, ‘Try the Pump Handle Slam,’ and I was like, ‘Okay.’ I tried it and I was like, ‘That’s really cool.’ I did it for a little bit going into the second Mae Young [Classic] and then obviously NXT UK. I would sit out with it and that was the way that I would do it for a while, and then my butt just hurt too bad. I was like, ‘I can’t do this. This is gonna really screw up my back later on, so I’m just gonna start going to my knees.’ So that’s how it all came to life. It was really Shane Haste’s idea.”

Rhea Ripley is set to defend the WWE Women’s Championship against former champion Jade Cargill in a WrestleMania rematch at Clash in Italy on Sunday, May 31.

Despite a lacklustre spell on WWE’s main roster as Slapjack, Shane Haste now finds himself holding the GHC Heavyweight Championship after returning to Pro Wrestling NOAH earlier this year.

You can find more on the latest WWE news ahead of Clash in Italy here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Rhea Ripley as soon as we hear more.

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