Ronda Rousey extremely critical on how women were treated in WWE in new book

[Chris]

Ronda Rousey takes aim at Vince McMahon in her upcoming new memoir.

Rousey's book "Our Fight" releases on April 2 but excerpts of it began spreading on social media Wednesday morning.

In the released paragraphs, Rousey says Triple H is "one of the better people" on the business side of the company and compares Vince McMahon to Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars.


An excerpt reads:

NXT was founded by and under the control of Triple H, real name Paul Levesque. In addition to being my in-ring WrestleMania nemesis, he is arguably one of the best professional wrestlers in history and one of the better people on the business side. He is married to Stephanie McMahon, who is the daughter of WWE’s Emperor Palpatine, Vince McMahon. Vince took over the company from his father in the early 1980s and spent the better part of forty years playing a real-world pro-wrestling version of Monopoly, buying up and absorbing smaller promotions until he basically owned them all.
It’s hard sometimes to know where the evil, unethical, slimeball character of Vince McMahon played out for the cameras ends and the actual questionably ethical, many times sued, and multiple times accused of sexual misconduct Vince McMahon begins. That blurred line between character and reality is a recurring theme within the WWE Universe.

Another excerpt reads:

[Pay-per-views are] held in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, as well as now twice a year in Saudi Arabia, a nation that restricts the rights of women in a way that I’m certain Vince McMahon wishes he could.

Elsewhere in the book, Rousey talks about how female talent in WWE has been treated in the company.

WWE loves to do well-produced video segments about the legacy of women within the organization, but the truth is women have largely been footnotes. For the longest time, they were relegated to serving male characters in a valet role, an overly sexualized supporting character that takes cheap shots when the ref isn’t looking. Over time, as the level of female talent grew and society as a whole started to shift, the organization gradually expanded the role of female wrestlers.
WWE bills itself as a sports entertainment organization, and just like in the mainstream entertainment industry, there was, by all accounts, a casting couch culture where men backstage in powerful positions pressured female talent for sexual favors in return for airtime. There were so many public accusations and scandals it’s hard to keep track, and more that I’m sure the WWE managed to sweep under the ring.

She continues to say the company only began giving female talent more airtime after they were "basically armbarred into it."

And it was only after WWE was basically armbarred into it, following a global social media backlash to #givedivasachance after Divas were given a total of thirty seconds— less time than it takes most people to read this paragraph—for a nationally televised tag match. Four women were given less time to collectively wrestle than every single man on the roster got for his intro music alone.
Presented this information as a person outside of the wrestling world you might draw the conclusion that there is a troubling foundational sexist, patriarchal culture within the WWE. You would be right. I have nothing but respect for the female wrestlers who paved the way for women wrestlers today. And nothing but disgust for the amount of sexist, degrading bullshit they were put through.

Following McMahon's departure from TKO in January, Rousey took to social media to express that if Bruce Prichard is still with the company McMahon still had a hand in running it.

She wrote:

Bruce Prichard is basically Vince’s avatar, if he’s still around Vince still has a hand in the business. Vince was still running things through Bruce when he was 'gone' before

In March 2023, Rousey wrote that her program with Liv Morgan had been "hamstrung by a bunch of octogenarians."

She wrote:

Imagine what our @yaonlylivvonce feud could have been if we weren’t hamstrung by a bunch of octogenarians who still think they know how to be hip while putting less than 5 minutes of thought a week into each women’s storyline… new #RondaOnTheRoad

Rousey will be promoting her book in Philadelphia during WrestleMania Week. She's been announced for WrestleCon at The Sheraton in downtown Philadelphia from April 4-7, 2024. She will be signing copies of her book at the show.

Our Fight will be her second memoir. It will follow up on her 2015 book, "My Fight."

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/ronda-rousey-disgusted-by-degrading-b-shit-female-wwe-talent-went-through

 

[Canadian Dragon]

she's a jerk but she's also not really wrong with a lot of these takes

 

[Deezy]

Her first book she buried almost everyone she thought was responsible for her losses......sorry, I'm just noticing a pattern here.

Cue a year or two and watch as she makes nice and pretends she never wrote those words......again.

 

[Deadd2009]

I dont think she liked either time she was there, to be honest.

 

[Chris]

Bro lmao

 

[Cwalker]

30+ years and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a person say something positive about Johnny Ace

 

[Jacob Fox]

Yeah a lot of that seems to just reinforce what we already knew about what was going on.

 

[Chris]

Ronda Rousey on her lifelong history with concussions & where WWE run went wrong [Exclusive]

An interview with the UFC Hall of Famer and three-time WWE Women’s champion about her new memoir ‘Our Fight’ and some of the excerpts from it that are making headlines ahead of its release.

www.cagesideseats.com

Rousey told Cagesideseats that her frustrations with the company stemmed from the women's roster not being given the same screen or prep time.

She said:

The Bloodline is able to plan things out a year ahead of time, and they won’t even talk to me until I get to the arena. About anything.
I proved in my first match that if you give me the time, the resources and preparation, I can put together an amazing match. And I feel like they’re really doing that with Logan Paul and allowing him to rehearse and put these things together and have all these different resources, producers to bring him to his highest potential. And it got to the point where he girls [weren’t] gonna get any of that.

Rousey continued to say she began to feel like she was doing custom matches for a "f---ing sicko in the back."

She continued:

I just didn’t wanna be Vince’s action f—-ing figure anymore. I felt like I was like doing custom matches for a f—-ing sicko in the back.
All power to the girls that keep fighting the good fight. But I’m in my mid-30’s now. I’ve got s—t to do.

Rousey also reiterated previous comments she made about Bruce Prichard serving as "Vince's avatar" when he had supposedly retired from the company.

Rousey said:

(Vince McMahon) was never gone while I was there. He was just phoning it in through Bruce Pritchard.
My agent who works at WME (Endeavor), he was telling me, ‘You know, he’s completely gone now, I swear.’ And I’m like, I’ll believe it when I see it, because everyone said he left before. He never left. He was there by text message.

Later in the interview, Rousey discussed not having a singles match with Becky Lynch at WrestleMania and what she said to the company regarding her final storylines.

Rousey said WWE refused to work with her on developing a storyline that would lead to her vs. Lynch at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas.

She said:

WWE just refused to work with me at all. They refused to collaborate. They didn’t want to talk to me about it. They kept pushing it off and pushing it off until it finally got to the road to WrestleMania, and they’re like, yeah, we’re not gonna do you and Becky.

Rousey continued:

I’m like, ‘Alright, well then I’m f—-ing leaving unless me and Shanya [Baszler] can tag.'
If you guys don’t want to work with me, you don’t wanna do something extraordinary. You just wanna do good enough every single night. I came here to have fun with my friends.

Regarding her decision to leave WWE, Rousey says she told Triple H she couldn't "be associated with mediocrity."

I had a long sit down with Triple H and I was like, ‘I can’t be associated with mediocrity.’ And that’s what they seemed to be happy with at the time. And I hope that is different now, but I can’t say... that I’ve ever experienced it any other way.

However, Rousey was complimentary toward Triple H in the interview. She stated that she wished her final WWE run took place while he was running the company.

Rousey continued:

Triple H has been great towards the women in the company and really believing in us. He’s the whole reason that I was there, ‘cause he believed in me. I really wish that my last run was under Triple H running things and Vince being gone.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/ronda-rousey-i-didnt-want-to-be-vinces-action-f-ing-figure-anymore

 

[Cwalker]

Whew talk about burning bridges.

Get all that shit off your chest. It’s therapeutic

 

[Deezy]

Sorry her second run didn't slap like her first one......but she needs to stop blaming others for her failures.

She was the biggest female draw in sports at one point, hows about using that stroke when she was there? Example....if she didn't want to work Saudi.....say something.

 

[Cwalker]

It is crazy how night and day her 2 runs were.

Maybe she was lightning in a bottle. Maybe she lost motivation but as someone that was a fan, that second run wasn’t it

 

[Bobby Barrows]

It is crazy how night and day her 2 runs were.

Maybe she was lightning in a bottle. Maybe she lost motivation but as someone that was a fan, that second run wasn’t it

It's the whole Ken Shamrock thing all over.

The style was interesting at first, but then, like Ken Shamrock, Ronda Rousey just became "another wrestler" and she was god awful at it.

 

[Chris]

I don't think she was that bad, it was honestly a combo of a lot. Her first run she didn't wrestle as often, once she started that was when the magic first got lost but still the run didn't suffer bc it ended that Mania.

Second run she came back as just a high card woman the equivalent of Charlotte or Becky but not that higher level she was before. She was involved in standard ass angles (some not good obviously) and even tho she lost magic with the crowd the company also didn't put anything behind her to force that to change like they would have in the first run of like they've done with others like Roman.

And she definitely couldn't handle being treated like any woman on the card even a main event woman. Most of her complaints are really valid but they come across to me like "I can't believe they did this to ME of all people" even though she's constantly referring to the struggle all women have in the company.

 

[Deadd2009]

Her first run was good because we hadn't seen a female UFC fighter come over and transition to wrestling. She was decent in the ring because it looked like she actually cared. Its when she came back is when her run fell flat. She was boring on the mic, her matches were horrible, and she couldn't carry a feud.

 

[Deadd2009]

It's the whole Ken Shamrock thing all over.

The style was interesting at first, but then, like Ken Shamrock, Ronda Rousey just became "another wrestler" and she was god awful at it.

Yeah but Ken Shamrock knew his place after a while. He knew he wasn't going to get out of the midcard except for a feud here or there with like Undertaker or Rock but other than that, he wasn't doing anything worth while.