Rhea Ripley discussed some of the obstacles that have been put in the way of female athletes in the WWE during a recent interview with Jazzy’s world.

Ripley, who has been sidelined with a broken orbital bone since late last month, said women’s matches were long considered a “toilet break” and have struggled to be taken seriously.

Ripley said:

“The women of WWE, we’ve come very, very far. We’ve overcome a lot of obstacles put in our way, and it’s grown every year. I think that was the biggest obstacle, just getting people to kind of take us seriously .For the longest time people joked that we were in the bathroom, which is just disrespectful, especially when the women leave everything we have out in the ring, and we go as hard as the men do. So don’t treat us with that disrespect we make people realize that we can go as hard as the men, if not harder.”

Ripley also mentioned during the interview that, given the limitations of their profession, it is difficult for many female WWE performers to start a family.

Ripley continued:

“A lot of us have motherhood taken away for a long time. I’m still young, yes, but I work for WWE; it’s very demanding. I probably can’t have kids for the next 5 to 10 years because I don’t want to have to bring them on the road and put them through it. I’m not good at it, but then you look at someone like Becky Lynch, who went and had a baby and came back and is still mean, man, she’s herself and she’s a great mom while she’s doing it. She takes Roux on the road every now and then and she absolutely kills it. But yeah, we get taken away a lot, and I don’t think people really realize that.”

There is no timetable for Ripley’s return to WWE. The injury happened just a few weeks after it happened reported that she and WWE had agreed to a new long-term deal. Ripley too missed three months earlier this year with a shoulder injury and was forced to leave the Women’s WC as a result.

Ripley’s full performance at Jazzys World is below: