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PERTH, Australia -- On Saturday evening local time, Rhea Ripley will enter a packed Optus Stadium and main-event WWE's Elimination Chamber, the last major stop on the road to Wrestlemania. She'll defend her women's world championship against Nia Jax in a match that, for the Adelaide-born star, is seven years in the making. It has been almost a decade since the 27-year-old performed in her home country, dating back to April of 2017 when, as Demi Bennett, she successfully defended her Riot City Wrestling (RCW) Women's Championship against KellyAnne, subsequently relinquishing the title with an emotional speech as she bid her farewells before reporting to the WWE's developmental NXT in Florida. The stage for that bout was Latvian Hall in Adelaide, a venue with a capacity of around 420 people. Optus Stadium, conversely, is expected to have over 50,000 people in attendance when Ripley walks through the curtain, the latest performer to grace a venue that has previously hosted the likes of Chelsea FC, Eminem and Taylor Swift, as well as serves as the home of AFL sides the West Coast Eagles and Freemantle Dockers. And while they may not have significant global recognition, those last two tenants, in particular, make Saturday's venue a somewhat serendipitous one for the first WWE appearance Ripley -- also known as "Mami" these days as the leader of the Judgment Day -- will make in Australia, harkening back to the very first match in her career as a 16-year-old, down the local footy club. "[My first match] was for Riot City Wrestling and it was actually... I can't remember what the footy club was called, but it was my coach's footy club," Ripley recalled to ESPN. "We did it at their clubhouse pretty much. And there were a lot of people there actually because it was like all the footy guys and their friends and family. But that was my first match, and I went out there and I was just super excited. Super young, 16 years old, just the baby. "To come back as a WWE superstar, as the women's world champion, it's absolutely insane. To be the face of Elimination Chamber, to have it here in Perth, Australia at Optus Stadium and just make history. It really is amazing and it makes me proud of my journey." Ripley is one of three Australians currently advertised for Elimination Chamber, joined by Melbourne-born Indi Hartwell, who will team with Candice LeRae to take on the Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) for the women's tag team titles on the kickoff show, and Sydney-born Grayson Waller, who will host his in-ring segment 'The Grayson Waller Effect' alongside Wrestlemania main eventer Cody Rhodes and world Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins. Though having well and truly established themselves in the promotion, none of the three have yet had the chance to perform for the WWE in their homeland. The last time Hartwell wrestled in Australia was in 2019 with Melbourne City Wrestling, while Waller, as Matty Wahlberg, last featured for Pro Wrestling Australia in early 2021 in his hometown of New South Wales. He had his first match for PWA in 2017. But while all are local favorites, Ripley is clearly being positioned not just as the show's main eventer, but as its undisputed face. Beyond featuring on the official poster for the event, her face is one of the most common on the flags that have been hung throughout Perth to welcome WWE to town, and her merchandise has proven some of the most popular at the various stalls and pop-up stores around Perth. At Friday's official press event, it was the South Australian who received the loudest ovations from the crowd, giving her pause as she soaked in and fed off the adulation; doubly impressive, given that she came on stage last and after most of those in attendance had been sat in the sun for more than an hour in 38-degree Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) temperatures -- their cries of "We want beer," after a similar demand for sunscreen, induced WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque to hurl some into the crowd. "I feel like, in some ways, a proud dad," Levesque said of Ripley on local radio station 6PR earlier this week. "When I watch her go to the ring on Saturday, I'll have tears in my eyes, because it'll be that big of a deal." That's not to say there wasn't any beer at the press event, however. While sending the crowd home happy, Ripley and Waller -- who himself had earned raucous cheers for running down London in the latest salvo in the Australia and England rivalry -- concluded proceedings by performing a "shoey" for the jubilant crowd -- drinking a beer from their shoes in a celebration popularized around the world by Australian Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo. "It's hard at times to be away from home," Waller told ESPN. "All my family, all my friends are here, [but] my life is in another country and that's extremely difficult. That's where we [Australians] kind of lean on each other. It's nice when we sit together, we always talk about our accents all of a sudden get a lot more Australian when we're hanging out. So I think we're all very proud together." "Elimination Chamber is my WrestleMania, in a way," he continued. "I've never had the opportunity to be on WrestleMania. Hopefully, that happens this year and I don't want to discount that WrestleMania is the biggest event of the year. But for me, being able to perform in front of my home fans in front of my country in this stadium is wild. If you've never been to Optus Stadium, it's incredible. And it's a huge opportunity. I know Rhea feels the same. I know Indi feels the same. We just want to put on a show." Waller will be center stage with Rhodes and Rollins, two of the company's biggest stars, but it's hard not to think that he'll have a spotlight moment during the night given this opportunity. Despite the lack of main roster gold, the past year has been a standout year for the Australian, and he isn't feeling the pressure of performing in front of a very Waller-friendly crowd. "In front of those big lights, in front of those cameras, in front of millions of people -- [it's] just being me... Nothing's stressing me. I main-evented Madison Square Garden, lad, nothing could be more stressful from that." The last time the WWE put on an event in Australia was in 2018, when it staged a 'WWE Super ShowDown' event at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where Melbourne-born Buddy Murphy, now AEW's Buddy Matthews, defeated Cedric Alexander for the cruiserweight title. The COVID-19 pandemic and Australia's significant travel restrictions limited travel in the intervening years. The West Australian government has made a significant investment to end this absence and lure the Elimination Chamber to Perth to encourage tourism. But in addition to limiting events in Australia, the travel restrictions also prevented wrestlers' family and friends from travelling to the United States. "There's a lot of dedication involved when you're not from the US," Rollins told ESPN. "That's where most of our touring is done and being married to [Becky Lynch] who's not a US citizen, she's Irish, I know what it's like. I understand what they go through when they leave home to pursue a dream and then not be able to visit your family as regularly as some of us get to. "To be in your own world and to feel that love, it's just different when you've got that grass underneath your feet, you know, it's a different vibe. And so it's very cool for them to be able to come back and get that experience." Ripley's parents and uncle were in the stands as she logged her career highlight to date by defeating Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown women's title at WrestleMania 39, and Waller had his mother and close family visit him while with NXT, but Saturday represents the first time they will have friends and family see them perform for the WWE en masse. That's to say nothing of the horde of wrestlers from Australia's increasingly strong independent scene who have travelled to support their friends, idols, and one-time rivals. "I'm excited for them to see it because I've sacrificed a lot to be here," said Waller. "One of my best mate's wedding was last weekend and I was supposed to be the best man and he's here, he's gonna see the show. "Me being able to put on a show, in a way, kind of like proves that all those sacrifices are worth it. I want to show them that like I know I missed a lot of events, I've missed a lot of your lives, but I want to show them it's for a reason."
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