Ronda Rousey is once again opening up about her frustrations during her time in WWE under Vince McMahon’s leadership.
While speaking with Complex News (see video below), the former WWE and UFC star reflected on her wrestling career and admitted that she often felt like she wasn’t able to truly be herself on WWE television.
According to Rousey, there was a noticeable difference between the moments where she had creative freedom and the times where scripts were heavily controlled.
“I felt like I was doing somebody else’s impression of myself. You can tell when I was allowed to write my own promos and when I wasn’t. I learned a lot from it and I really enjoyed my time in the ring. I didn’t really enjoy being under the death throes of Vince McMahon’s reign, but there were a lot of great experiences in there.”
Rousey went on to discuss the backstage environment during her second WWE run, describing the atmosphere as chaotic and disorganized behind the scenes.
She explained that last-minute changes became a regular occurrence, often leaving talent scrambling shortly before shows went live.
“I mean the second run, Vince was just more far gone and more difficult to work with and there was a lot of inner turmoil going on in the company. It was kind of a sh*t show and nobody ever knew what was going on. And you would get to the arena and you would be made to do something that somebody threw in your lap that wasn’t, hadn’t thought about it until 15 minutes before. Everything was super last minute and not well thought out and there was no communication, no back and forth.”
That wasn’t all.
Rousey also spoke about the anxiety she experienced during that period, noting that attempts to collaborate creatively often felt more like battles than teamwork. She admitted she was hopeful that Triple H would eventually take over WWE creative operations.
“Any attempt to collaborate felt like we were trying to negotiate something as opposed to partnering together to make something great. And unfortunately I love being out there in the ring and doing it, but the process was just like cluster fck, sht show that it was so much more anxiety than it was worth. I just look back at it and I just remember the anxiety of not knowing what was going on and then at the last minute, maybe we’d be able to pull it out of our a** and have a good night and maybe not. I was definitely team Triple H to get up to take it over. Yeah. So, I’ve heard it’s been much better since he’s taken things over, but unfortunately I didn’t get to experience it.”
Ronda Rousey is now preparing for her MMA return fight against Gina Carano on May 16 at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, with the event streaming live on Netflix.
