Aussies Abroad: Ripley’s brutal street fight and Fletcher’s winning streak
Welcome to another week’s edition of Aussies Abroad, where we take a look at the locals making a name for themselves in rings across the world.
Let’s start this week’s courage off with the latest news straight out of Saudi Arabia with Adelaide’s own Rhea Ripley going head to head with long term friend-turned-rival Raquel Rodriquez in an epic Riyadh Boulevard Street Fight. The two heavy hitters had a match nostalgic to their iconic last woman standing match in NXT, but this time with even more brutality on the big stage. Ripley certainly took some beatings from Rodriguez, but it didn’t take long for her to jump back each time. Highlights of the match included Ripley’s ruthless whippings to Rodriguez followed by an insane riptide from the top of a table balanced across the top turn buckle.
Things aren’t looking too good though for fellow Adelaidian Zaria in NXT, who has been caught in an awkward position the past few weeks with her locker room teammates. It’s certainly not a lack of sheer strength that’s seeing Zaria quickly losing her winning streak, but miscommunication between her tag partner Sol Ruca and “friends”. With Tatum Paxley now on Izzi Dam’s side following another nasty loss last month and Rucca still holding onto the belt Zaria wants so badly, how long until things turn messy in the locker room?
Over in AEW, Kyle Fletcher has continued his impressive winning streak this week picking up another victory, this time against Kyle O’Reilly. Things started out strong for Fletcher, and it was some “We want Kyle” chants from the crowd that sent him over the edge, dropping O’Reilly onto the ring apron and landing a scoop slam. After some impressive back and forth, it was eventually a stiff knee to O’Reilly followed by a sheer-drop brainbuster that saw Fletcher get the easy win.
Over in TNA, things have been going well for the recently recruited Indi Hartwell and the newly returned Iinspiration team of Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay. Last month saw the girls pick up a win against Tessa Blanchard and Victoria Crawford, and Hartwell pick up a win also against Crawford.
A number of Australians have also continued their work bringing the Aussie heat to Japan, including Chris Vice, who competed in the Tag 8 ZERO 1 Fire Festival in Tokyo, and Adelaide’s Kira Summer, who has continued her time with TJPW.
News Writer + Aussies Abroad. Based in Adelaide and winner of the 2023 CPA Young Journo of the year, has been a news and arts journalist for a number of years working across radio and print, but has decided to take her wrestling addiction to PWDU. You can find her at any local wrestling night across the state with a beer in-hand and a front-row ticket to the action.
