Buddy Matthews pays homage to his wife and WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley

Buddy Matthews just wrestled at AEW Grand Slam Australia earlier tonight. During the show, he paid homage to his wife, Rhea Ripley.

Buddy Matthews and Rhea Ripley first met each other during their time working in WWE in 2020. Their friendship blossomed and they began dating two years later in 2022. A year later, the couple announced their engagement and they finally tied the knot last year. Although Buddy and Rhea work for different promotions currently, they have always been supportive of each other's work.

Their careers also have some parallels. Last year, at WWE Elimination Chamber, Rhea competed in her home country of Australia and she wore a jacket with the country's flag on the back. Today, Buddy Matthews competed at Grand Slam Australia and he decided to pay homage to his wife by wearing a similar jacket.

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Bill Apter makes a massive prediction about Rhea Ripley's upcoming title defense

On the February 3 episode of WWE RAW, IYO SKY had the chance to qualify for the Elimination Chamber match. However, Rhea, who tried to help her out, ended up costing IYO the match. The former WWE Women's Champion was quite upset about the setback.

To make things right, Mami offered IYO a title shot on the RAW after Elimination Chamber. This means that IYO still has a chance to make it to WrestleMania this year.

Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk podcast, Bill Apter said that Rhea will retain her title. However, IYO will be more prominently featured in the match.

"I think it's a great idea to draw people to Netflix, trying to keep that Netflix audience coming back every week for something special and my prediction is Rhea retains the belt in what will be an excellent match that will showcase IYO SKY more so than Rhea Ripley." [6:55 - 7:15]

It will be interesting to see if Mami will be able to defeat IYO SKY when they clash in three weeks.