WWE: Ripley Ripley on Her WrestleMania 41 Match Being “Such a Special Moment”, El Grande Americano Wins WWE Speed Title on 5/7 WWE Speed Show, A&E WWE Ratings, More News

May 8, 2025

Ripley Ripley Comments on Her WrestleMania 41 Match Being “Such a Special Moment”

Wild World of Sports held a recent interview with Rhea Ripley. One of the topics discussed included Ripley’s thoughts about her Triple Threat match with Bianca Belair and IYO SKY for the WWE Women’s World Championship at WrestleMania 41 being such a special moment for her.

“I moved over here at 20 years old. These girls were pretty much my family. They’re like my sisters. They were the only ones that I saw every single day. Trained with them all the time. It was a very competitive nature, but a very loving nature at the same time. So to go out at Wrestlemania 41 and have such an awesome match where you know you had the crowd the entire time, and you were opening the show and they were loud and [you feel] that adrenaline rush. Honestly, all of us broke down in tears. I was so happy, so very happy. It was such a special moment. Even on the bus afterwards, I couldn’t come down from that high at all.
Seeing that video of Iyo’s family crying in the crowd, it was so special because I’ve had that moment, where I beat Charlotte and I looked over and my family’s crying in the crowd. Bianca’s had that moment where she’s beaten Sasha [Banks] or Becky [Lynch] and she’s looked over and seen her family in the crowd crying. Iyo hasn’t had that moment yet. So to see her have that moment captured and presented to everyone, it was a really special day.”

El Grande Americano Wins WWE Speed Title on Wednesday’s WWE Speed Show

Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured El Grande Americano defeating Dragon Lee to become the new WWE Speed Champion.

TODAY on #WWESpeed!

The #WWESpeed Championship is on the line! Will @dragonlee95 successfully defend his title, or will @Americano_WWE emerge as your new champ? 👀 pic.twitter.com/OCIiCd78vz
— WWE (@WWE) May 7, 2025

This was Americano’s first ever championship victory of his WWE career.

A&E WWE Programming Ratings – May 4, 2025

This past Sunday’s WWE LFG doubleheader first episode drew 125,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This was down compared to last week’s show’s 128,000 viewers but up to its 0.02 18-49 demographic rating.

This past Sunday’s WWE LFG doubleheader second episode drew 71,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.02 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

Source: Programming Insider

WWE News & Notes

This past Tuesday’s Inside The NBA show on TNT featured current Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena making a surprise appearance to promote the upcoming second season of Peacemaker.

2K Games recently released a first look video featuring Motor City Machine Guns’ Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin for the New Wave Pack DLC for their WWE 2K25 video game.

Sportico reported that Mattel CEO Ynon Kriez had stated during a investor’s meeting this past Monday that the company might need to increase the prices for their WWE action figures and other products due to issues revolving around President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Kriez also stated that the company is currently confident about mitigating actions to offset potential price hikes due to tariffs. Kriez stated that these mitigating actions would include moving toy production out of China, cutting internal operations costs, and raising U.S. prices on some of its toy lines.

WWE held a new set of talent tryouts this past March in London as part of their recent tour of Europe. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that many of the people who participated in the tryout are still waiting to hear back from WWE regarding their potential contract status. It was reported that this tryout had featured a diverse group of people including both seasoned wrestlers and athletes with no prior experience in pro wrestling. It was also reported that this tryout was overseen by WWE veteran coaches Robbie Brookside, Matt Bloom, and Johnny Moss.

WWE recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Last Man Standing match of Batista vs. The Undertaker (c) from WWE Backlash 2007. The second new video was a “The story of The nWo Wolfpac.”

WWE also recently released one new video to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the full February 25, 2015 episode of WWE NXT.

This past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show featured Myles Borne winning the #1 Contender Battle Royal match to become the official challenger for Oba Femi’s NXT Championship at this month’s Battleground 2025 event. Borne recently reflected on Twitter about his battle royal victory and his upcoming match against Femi. Borne stated “May 25th, I’m going to put it all on the line. This is for all the kids who are different. For those who face challenges or have a disability that they think limits them. Nothing limits us. If I can do it, you can too. Let’s ride.“

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, R-Truth gave his thoughts about John Cena’s recent heel turn. R-Truth stated “Why y’all asking me that? Y’all noticed I haven’t spoke on that at all, right? And I don’t want to speak on it right now. I’m hurt to the beyond hurtstivity, that is a word, saying it’s way up there in the heart somewhere, there’s no need to talk about it. I’m feeling what all of y’all are thinking: hustle, loyalty, respect, never give up. The Make a Wish stuff, all that stuff is just going with me. I won’t even think about it, talk about it, Little Jimmy, I have to deal with that. I’m saying he’s in turmoil because of that. I get off subject a little bit, and they’re talking about belief in my last appearance I did, and Little Jimmy is around because we believe man and I believe in my childhood hero. I don’t know, man, he done does. There’s 2 sides to every story.” In response to comments from host Van Vliet about Cena hitting a low blow to Cody Rhodes for his heel turn, R-Truth responded stating “We don’t know that for sure. It looked like it went there, but we don’t know that. [It could have been] to part of the inner thigh. So it’s like, Y’all know how you’re going through a situation, and you’re thinking about it, you know you need to do something about it, but you leave it where it’s at, because right now it’s still stewing and simmering, and you still don’t know how to react about it. That’s where I’m at with the John Cena thing.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the WWE RAW Recap podcast, Becky Lynch gave her thoughts about her reasons why she decided to target Bayley for her recent return to WWE. Lynch stated “2013. Why is everybody acting like me and Bayley were best friends? I’ve not liked that woman. Maybe a month here and there, but then, it’s either I’m going to turn on her or she’s going to turn one me because we do not gel. We do not gel. She is not the example for the industry. This is why I needed to take her out. Lyra is saying, ‘Oh, you didn’t help me.’ Of course I didn’t help you. It’s every woman….I did help you, I helped Lyra, but I didn’t help everybody else. I’m not going to help everybody else because it’s every woman for themselves. Do we not understand this? If I’m helping everybody, I’m supposed to win. My job is to win. You want me to take food off my child’s plate, is what you’re saying? I get paid more the better I am. Why am I going to help anybody else? This isn’t show friends, this is show business. Bayley is so confused about this she is probably paying $100 a month to her best friend to text her.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)