Australian mainstream media fuss and frolic over the most trivial morsels regarding our C-grade local celebrities and even more so for Aussie A-listers who have cracked the big time in Hollywood. It’s obviously of interest to their audience.

The media also rightly praises our sports stars when they reach the pinnacle of their field, especially on the international stage.

Yet when it comes to Aussies rising to the top of one of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world, you barely hear a peep out of our media.

The WWE professional wrestling franchise raked in close to $1.4 billion in the last financial year.

WWE has an estimated fan base of almost 100 million in the USA and likely the same worldwide.

According to WWE, 277 million viewers tuned in around the globe to watch SummerSlam in early August 2025.

Monday Night RAW holds the record for the longest-running, ‘uninterrupted’ episodic television serial in history.

When WWE comes to Australia, tickets fly out the door faster than most tours from international rock stars.

And yet many Australians would have no idea that in the ultra-competitive world of pro-wrestling, Aussie performers have risen to the pinnacle of this entertainment juggernaut.

Demi Bennett, aka Rhea Ripley, from Adelaide has risen to become arguably the most popular women’s WWE wrestler of all time – not simply the most popular in the modern iteration of the franchise – of all time.

Starting out in the business as a teenager, Bennett/Ripley wrestled in Adelaide with Riot City Wrestling, and then in Japan before being accepted into WWE’s NXT roster in the US and UK. As a teenager Bennett also managed to forge a successful youth career in swimming, soccer and karate.

Nowadays, when Bennett enters the stadium as Rhea Ripley, the screams that follow her theme music are deafening. Her entrance to the blistering Demon in your Dreams theme song starts with a screaming, ‘This is My Brutality…’

The entrance has rightly been likened to Mark Calloway, aka The Undertaker’s ubiquitous single bell-toll entrance in pitch darkness.

Part of Bennett’s popularity also stems from her accessibility to her fans. Social media is filled with fan encounters where as Ripley, Bennett has made a young fan’s dream come true with a handshake, a hug or a selfie.

For all this, Bennett has maintained her uniquely Australian look and sound, embracing her Aussie-ness where many Australian entertainers turn their back on their heritage. Indeed, as Rhea Ripley, Bennett leans into being Australian, often wearing a studded leather jacket to the ringside that reads ‘Rhea Bloody Ripley’.

While Bennett has climbed to the uttermost peak of the WWE Empire, there are other Aussies also staking their claim. Jermaine Haley, aka ‘Big’ Bronson Reed’, also from Adelaide, has crashed his way into becoming a regular feature on the Monday Night RAW roster, often taking to the ring alongside wrestling icons Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman.

Grayson Waller, born and raised in Sydney, is another up-and-comer who has survived the often-brutal cuts by WWE creative executives that see wrestling careers diverted to other less lucrative franchises.

Matthew Adams aka Buddy Matthews, who happens to be married to Demi Bennett, is also a monster of a wrestler competing in the AEW franchise with a steadily growing popularity.

And yet the respect for these amazing home-grown performers from mainstream Australian media is sadly lacking.

Maybe it’s the choreographed nature of professional wrestling that the media can’t come to terms with.

‘It’s all fake!’ is the phrase most often bandied about by media commentators and talk show hosts on metropolitan media. So are the Lord of the Rings movies that feature a bevy of acclaimed Australian acting talent and have received well-deserved praise here and abroad.

Perhaps our media need an education on what WWE actually ‘is’. At its heart, professional wrestling is Shakespearean. While that may cause my 12th-grade English teacher to lose her lunch, it’s true.

Shakespeare wrote for the masses. His plays were brilliantly crafted tales of love, lust, betrayal, and revenge. They were sometimes bawdy, violent, and gory. They were filled with dramatic climaxes and terrible twists.

The death of Hamlet’s mother as she drinks the poison chalice in the final act. Romeo takes his own life, believing Juliet dead. Brilliant, visceral, soap opera for the masses. Its likeness to WWE is palpable.

Wrestling is a violent pantomime acted out by highly skilled, highly trained professionals’ week-in week-out for the entertainment of ordinary fans.

Remembering fight choreography for lengthy matches that often spill out of the ring and into the arena, all performed live with no ‘do-overs’ is a feat not many Hollywood actors could emulate.

And pro-wrestlers bleed for their art.

In 2024, as Rhea Ripley, Bennett fractured her orbital bone during a match, her eyeball almost falling out of her skull.

At Wrestlemania earlier this year, an opponent was unable to perfectly pull her punch, and Rhea copped another blow to the same eye socket. Her Instagram picture the next day showed the severe bruising the blow caused.

For all this, our Aussie wrestlers are given such little respect from the Australian media.

When WWE last came to Australia, Grayson Waller was mocked on morning TV, with producers springing an unrehearsed stunt on the young Aussie pro. They asked him to ‘show his wrestling moves’ to one of the crew who attempted to goad the Aussie wrestler into a tussle.

Considering the amount of training and preparation it takes to be able to pull a punch and take a fall without breaking bones, the stunt was very disrespectful and potentially dangerous. Thankfully, Waller refused to buy in.

Pro-wrestling is becoming increasingly popular in this country. Australians should feel patriotic pride that several athlete/actors who started out wrestling in town hall shows in the suburbs of Sydney and Adelaide have risen to the top of the pile.

It would be even more wonderful if our domestic media gave them the accolades they deserve.

I’ve never met Rhea Ripley, ‘Big’ Bronson Reed or Grayson Waller, but if I had the chance I’d simply say, ‘Good on ya’. You’ve done Australia proud.’

Brad Emery is a wrestling tragic, author and freelance writer