Rhea Ripley is one of the most intimidating wrestlers on the WWE roster, but that doesn’t mean she can’t find herself in situations where she feels threatened. Recently, that’s been from people harassing her for multiple autographs, particularly at airports.
Ripley made some waves earlier this week with a tweet expressing her frustration with autograph seekers following her outside at airports.
People need to respect that no means no!
At airports do not follow me outside. Today has put me off completely! I will not sign ANYTHING that isn’t a personal photo of us anymore.
Hate me, I don’t care.
Disagree with me, try putting yourselves in our shoes for one bloody day.— RheaRipley_WWE (@RheaRipley_WWE) March 20, 2023
While many people in the replies backed her up, it naturally touched off a bit of a debate on social media overall. What’s so wrong about someone approaching a WWE superstar for an autograph?
According to Ripley’s interview with USA Insider (h/t Fightful), nothing, as long as it’s done with some thought about how WWE stars are people too. And preferably not requesting multiple items to be signed just to flip for a profit on eBay.
The fans who do that — some of whom have also shown up on social media harassing Liv Morgan and Rey Mysterio recently — not only ruin things for everyone else, they also put wrestlers in potentially dangerous situations.
Here’s Ripley explaining exactly how:
So I had a fan follow me outside the airport today because I said no to them because I didn’t have the time and it was all of the same stuff they wanted signed. It was one fan specifically, he’s notorious, he’s always at the airport getting our signatures and selling them on eBay — we know his face, we know who he is. He was the main instigator, he followed me out and others followed him too and they all followed me as I’m trying to find my Uber. So I’m trying to tell them no and they’re all being persistent and I ended up getting lost, I had no idea where my Uber was, and I ended up down the stairs away from everyone else and I’m just surrounded by these five guys and they’re just hassling me.
I don’t think people understand how threatening that is. Especially because you don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know these people.
What Ripley wants is for fans to apply the Golden Rule: Treat WWE performers the way they’d want to be treated, and not as ways to make a quick buck.
Just treat us with respect like we’re normal human beings instead of products. I find that a lot of the time when you go to the airport, people that are waiting there, waiting for signatures and autographs, a lot them — not all of them, there is some good ones in the batch that actually want to meet their favorite Superstars and that’s all good and fine, but it’s the ones that are trying to make money off our signatures and just treat us like we’re a product for everyone’s use.
It’s not necessarily relatable to anyone who’s not famous, but it sure sounds reasonable and understandable. Here’s hoping that the people who need to hear this most take Ripley’s words to heart.