WWE Superstar Nia Jax Is Ready To Reclaim Her Throne, Humble Rhea Ripley At Saturday Night’s Main Event

Between winning the Queen Of The Ring tournament and having a dominant five-month reign as WWE Women’s Champion, there is a short list of professional wrestlers who had a better 2024 than Nia Jax. Now, after losing her title to start 2025, she prepares to take on a familiar foe in Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship at this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.

“Rhea Ripley [is] sitting on this high horse thinking that she’s untouchable, it makes me sick to my stomach,” the two-time Women’s Champion said emphatically. “She’s one of the most dominant women in this division in the history of WWE, but I’m sick of this. I’m sick of me not getting my flowers and what I deserve. I’m coming for Rhea. I need to knock her off her little pedestal. And Saturday Night’s Main Event, I have no problem doing it in front of the millions and millions that are going to be tuning in.”

Jax, a member of the legendary Anoa’i family featuring The Rock and Roman Reigns, understandably has a chip on her shoulder. On the very first Smackdown of 2025, she defended her WWE Women’s Championship against Naomi and was successful thanks to her former protege, Tiffany Stratton. Stratton then turned on her, cashed in her Money In The Bank briefcase (a contract guaranteeing a title match any time for a calendar year), and pinned Nia, ending the night as the new champion. It’s a sore subject for Nia and, even though she’s focused on Ripley, Stratton shouldn’t think their beef is over by a long shot.

“Man, it’s like you build her up, you raise this little baby, and then she goes and she stabs you in the back,” Nia Jax said. “It’s something I’ve never experienced. She should definitely be watching her back and keeping an eye out for me. There’s a part of me that’s a little proud of her because I taught her well, I can’t lie, but the betrayal still eats at me, so she definitely shouldn’t be sitting comfortably, that’s for sure.”

This upcoming matchup with Rhea Ripley is especially noteworthy for Jax because, just under one year ago, they faced off in the main event of Elimination Chamber live from Perth, Australia. While many people focused on Rhea getting to be in the main event in her home country, it is home for Jax too, as she was born in Sydney.

“It felt incredible,” she said of the unprecedented event. “I got to perform in Sydney before, and it was just more of a live event, but this was a major [premium live event] for WWE and the stadium was huge. And it’s funny because I had family out there, my cousin lives out there with his whole family. They came to the show and he was in tears thinking, ‘This is one of the biggest events that they’ve ever had.’ And I got to main event that in my home country.”

Of course, it’s not a conversation with Nia Jax without her turning an endearing topic into a jab at a rival. “I had no problem giving all the accolades to Rhea because she is born and raised out there,” she stated. “But it was cool to be able to share that [moment] and be like, ‘Hey, listen, I was the first Australian Women’s champion in WWE.’ I’ll let you have your time Rhea, but I was first.”

The Irresistible Force proudly reflects on all of her achievements and the fact she is one of the standouts when considering the diversity of women that WWE has showcased over the years. “There was always a lot of no’s that came my way,” the former plus-sized model admitted.

“A lot of like, ‘Hey, you don’t fit in. Hey, you’re too big. Hey, you don’t move this well.’ A lot of the no’s that I was presented with previously have led to all these great yes’s for me now. I hope that when women see me, they don’t think like, ‘Oh, she just got there out of nowhere.’ There were a lot of heartaches, no’s, crying, bottoms of the barrel. I want women to know it wasn’t just this great path.”

All of the adversity over the years has turned Nia Jax into a fortified powerhouse, squashing any opponent who stands in her way. She has even mixed it up with the men, as she entered the Men’s Royal Rumble match in 2019. In one of the most talked about WWE moments of the late 2010s, she took finishing moves from Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, and Dolph Ziggler before getting eliminated.

“I was told [I would be in the match] when doors were opening,” she revealed. “I didn’t get to go through [moves] with the guys. Fans were coming in, we couldn’t rehearse anything. They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re in the Men’s Rumble as well.’” She made history as the first superstar to compete in two Rumbles in the same evening.

“When I was done with that and I went to the back, the guys were all sitting in a room just waiting for me to come in. It was such a cool moment because you have Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Dolph Ziggler, Andrade, [Mustafa Ali.] Those guys were so kind and giving.”

The men’s generosity was heartwarming, but now she is focused on taking Rhea Ripley’s Women’s World Championship. Find out if Nia Jax puts singles gold around her waist for the third time by watching Saturday Night’s Main Event, live on NBC and Peacock at 8 p.m. ET.