WWE’s Rhea Ripley Gets Engaged to AEW Star

Rhea Ripley continues to have a memorable year. The WWE Superstar went to Instagram on Wednesday to announce her engagement to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Buddy Matthews. In the post, Ripley is seen kissing Matthews which the caption saying “1000x YES! Pure F—ing happiness!”

Per Comicbook.com, Ripley and Matthews have been dating for a couple of years. The two met in WWE when Matthews went by the ring name Buddy Murphy. Matthews left WWE in 2021 and joined AEW the following year. Ripley’s career has been on the rise the last two years, winning world titles in every brand she has competed in. Ripley is currently the Women’s World Championship (formerly the SmackDown Women’s Championship) after beating Charlotte Flair for the title at WrestleMania 39 in April. 

The interesting thing about all this is Ripley has a somewhat on-screen relationship with Dominik Mysterio. It’s not clear if WWE will make changes to the perceived romance due to the engagement, but since Matthews is in a different promotion, WWE may leave things as they are. 

Ripley, 26, has been with WWE since 2017 and has emerged as one of the top Superstars in the company. In the last six years, Ripley has won the NXT UK Women’s Championship, the NXT Women’s Championship, the Raw Women’s Championship and the Women’s Tag Team Championship. In March, Ripley spoke to GQ about her goals for the women’s division. 

“I want the women’s division to be the biggest that it’s ever been,” she said. “But there’s always that selfish side of you that wants to be the face of the women’s division. I want to make history, to make a legacy for myself – but if accomplishing that means that the women’s division doesn’t grow and get better, then it wasn’t really worth it.”

Matthews competed in WWE from 2013 to 2021. During his time with the company, Matthews won the NXT Tag Team Championship, the Cruiserweight Championship and the Raw Tag Team Championship. Matthews made his AEW debut in February 2022 and teamed up with Malakai Black and Brody King to form The House of Black. In March of this year, The House of Black won the AEW World Trios Championship.