Rhea Ripley once admitted she had a real-life crush on top WWE star

Over the last two years, Rhea Ripley has had several on-screen romantic interests and a happy relationship in real life. Outside the WWE sphere, she is married to fellow Australian wrestler, Buddy Murphy. In the Stamford-based promotion, she has recently been involved with Dominik Mysterio and even teased a romantic angle with Jey Uso.

However, long before Rhea Ripley tangled with any of them, she had her first-ever WWE crush. She revealed the same in an interview with Riju Dasgupta on Sportskeeda's WrestleBinge back in September 2023. At the time she was still playing the role of Mami to Dirty Dom in The Judgment Day.

To everyone's surprise, it was a 21-time WWE champion. The star in question was none other than The Miz. Upon being asked the question about her first wrestling crush, Rhea Ripley looked stunned. With a smile of embarrassment on her face, she revealed that the A-lister was her first-ever crush in WWE.

It certainly was an interesting choice on The Eradicator's part. She did not elaborate too much on the reason why she had a crush on The Miz, but she did later realize that he would likely see this. Check out the video below:

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Rhea Ripley loved everything about The Miz and his character

While Rhea Ripley did not reveal the reason behind her crush, perhaps it had something to do with The Miz's character. After all, the Women's World Champion has mentioned on several occasions, just how much she idolized the A-Lister and his arrogant attitude. In fact, growing up, the 44-year-old was her all-time favorite.

She stated the same on the Under the Ring podcast. In the episode, she spoke about some of her favorite wrestlers growing up. And, while she is a huge fan of her current boss, Triple H, her No.1 favorite was always The Miz. She loved everything about him.

Whether it was the way he walked around like he was the "top dog", or how he ran away at times when superstars who were bigger and stronger than him appeared.

"So I loved Triple H, of course. But my all-time favorite was The Miz. Growing up, I loved everything thing about The Miz. I loved his arrogant attitude. I just loved the way that he talked, walked around, and thought that he was the top dog, but then also, ran away from people like John Cena at times. Like, I don't know. I loved everything about The Miz." [H/T Wrestling Inc]

To be fair, The Miz was one of the top heels in the company at the time, and that remains the case even today.