AEW star Buddy Matthews is the husband of former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley. While both stars are ruthless inside the squared circle, their personalities are completely different off-screen. One of the things that the former AEW World Trios Champion is known for outside of the wrestling ring is photobombing fan photographs with his wife, Rhea Ripley.
Recently, while speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, Buddy Matthews shared that whenever the couple is in a public space, he is very protective of her, as one never knows if a fan is coming to get a photo or if they are going to try and harm Ripley. He also explained how the ‘photobombing’ became a regular thing.
“I’ve started to try and make it a bit of a thing. So let me get this straight. All right. The first one, I get the photo, but I go into very protective mode of her, because I don’t know if they’re just going to come up. If they’re just coming up to her quickly, and I’m kind of her repellent, right? I’m constantly looking mad. So they [might think], oh maybe we don’t interrupt them. I’m not a very good repellent, apparently.”
Buddy Matthews explains how the photobombing began
During the same interview, Buddy Matthews shared that the first photo that went viral was the picture in which he was holding roses and staring at a fan taking a picture with his wife. He shared the reason why he was really not next to Ripley in the photograph. He also elaborated on the story of how the Walmart employee got a photo with the Eradicator.
“So this one time, I was in the Publix’s line in the deli trying to get a sub, roses in my arm. I’m in my line, and it was a pretty busy line. While I’m in the line, someone gets a photo with her. I’m not losing my spot, I’m not moving, I’m getting that sub. So there’s a photo of me in the background just staring at him with roses in my hand.
“The next one I think you’re talking about is Walmart. We were in the pet section, now [they’re] following us. It was a weird interaction, because to me, we’re people, right? If you’re gonna ask for a photo, ask both of us for a photo. ‘Hey Buddy, hey Rhea, can I get a photo?’ Yeah sure, that’s fine. You want both. But if you’re gonna go up to one of us, go, ‘Hey, can I get a photo?’ Doesn’t necessarily mean both of us. So he didn’t ask me for a photo. So I just kind of back out, that’s just like my thing, made sure that I was in it. And then it went pretty viral. I know what he was doing, the way he captured and the way he took the photo was pretty obvious, but now I just made my thing. I’m just in the background,” Buddy Matthews said.
What are your thoughts on the photobombing stories?