Rhea Ripley was only 20 when she signed her WWE contract in 2017. Later that year, she took part in the inaugural Mae Young Classic, a tournament that featured 32 female wrestlers. While the young Aussie didn’t win, her future star power was already apparent.
Ripley, who has just won the WWE Women's Championship for a second time after defeating Liv Morgan in Raw's debut episode on Netflix, is almost unrecognisable compared to how she first looked during her WWE debut. Then she appeared fresh-faced with long, blonde hair – something she links to how she felt about things at the time.
“I moved to America when I was 20, I was very shy and very scared,” she tells The National. "And I just wanted to do a good job. I was scared of getting fired and I just wanted to, like, please everyone.
“I had the long, blonde hair and I think I used that as a hiding mechanism sort of thing. When I got shy or I didn't feel comfortable, I would hide behind my hair.”
She says that between the first Mae Young Classic and the second one in 2018, she went through a lot of things in her personal and professional life.
“I got picked on, I got bullied, I didn't feel like I was worth anything. And I was just sick of everything. I was so homesick and I didn't want to be in America anymore. I was just done with everything,” she says.
Even though she felt like giving up on her dream of being a professional wrestler, she decided to try and change her outlook.
“I sat down with myself one day and I was like, ‘toughen up, you've been through so much and you've come so far don't throw it all away now. You can you can keep going. I know you can'. I just had to sort of believe in myself, in a way.”
One day, someone in the locker room suggested that shorter hair look would suit her and she decided to cut it. The haircut wasn't only a physical change – it was also a much-needed boost of confidence.
“I've always been scared of cutting my hair but that's a little bit of confidence that I need, so I just went and cut it,” she says. “I got new gear I didn't tell anyone and I walked up the second Mae Young for the photos in my new stuff. And everyone's like, 'what is this?' I'm like, ‘the new me, get used to it right now.'”
Her new look included more black, more studs and wearing darker make-up. It's been a definite change from the basic ring gear she once wore. After NXT UK was created in October 2018, she would become the first NXT UK Women’s Champion – a role that proved she was more than enough.
Soon, the short, blonde hair would get darker and Ripley added more tattoos to her arms and legs, matching the darker tone of her new wrestling persona, “The Nightmare”.
She credited the American heavy metal band Motionless in White for inspiring her, especially their song Untouchable.
“I love being creepy and being dark and I love Motionless in White. So I was like, ‘Nightmare is perfect’. I love supernatural stuff. That's me as a human outside of work. That’s just stuff that I like. So why don't I bring it into work as well?”
Ripley says this is a truer representation of herself, despite her former looks.
She also credits WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix as an inspiration. Watching Phoenix in the ring helped her realise that not every female wrestler needs to be slender and petite but that beauty has many shapes and sizes.
This is a message she also wants to spread to any other aspiring wrestlers. She wants them to know that while people may doubt them like they once did her, they can persevere.
“Don't stop, because there's going to be people that doubt you. There's going to be people that say that you can't do it and you're never going make it. But they did that to me, too, and look at me now.
“So just stay determined and stay on track and do whatever you want. Whether that's wrestling, whether that's soccer, football, basketball, anything, any sport, even outside of sports, anything else you like, you can do it. Just stay determined.”
A version of this story first appeared in The National in September 2022
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Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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