Ronda Rousey pushed hard for WWE to turn her heel when she thought her story was “going nowhere.”
When Rousey first arrived in the company back in 2018, fans were excited to see the former UFC star become a pro wrestler, leading to her getting great reactions from the audience as a babyface. However, towards the end of her first run the following year, fans had begun to sour on The Baddest Woman On The Planet, and by the time she took a hiatus after losing to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 35, they were firmly on the side of The Man.
When she came back and won the Royal Rumble in January 2022, Ronda Rousey was set to turn heel for the first time, however, those plans were nixed after she received a huge reaction from the audience that night.
In her autobiography Our Fight, which is released on April 4th, Rousey explains that she kept pushing for WWE to let her turn heel when the fans had turned on her, only for the request to be denied.
“I called Triple H and told him I was done being a babyface. I was no longer capable of playing the good guy. I was done smiling and shaking hands while being s**t on. I wanted to be able to defend myself, to say what was on my mind. It was my turn to turn.
“But as hard as I pushed, WWE pushed back. It just wasn’t yet time, I was told. We had to build up to it further, the producers said. We needed to better develop the characters. They talked about it as if they were writing scripts for serious actors who wanted to know ‘what is my motivation for this scene?’ and not people who were smashing each other through tables.
“I went out every week, night after night, and I sold falls, hits, and cheap shots like a f***ing champ for WWE. But the fans hated it. The novelty of my arrival had worn off for everyone – including me – the story that WWE prides itself so much on telling was going nowhere. As months passed, I started to feel like WWE had sold me a bunch of bull**t.”
Ronda Rousey finally became a heel in October 2022 and went on to form an alliance with Shayna Baszler that lasted until Money In The Bank 2023, when Baszler turned on her. This led to Baszler beating Rousey in an MMA Rules match at that year’s SummerSlam. This proved to be Rousey’s last bout in WWE.
Ronda Rousey Has No Intention Of Returning To WWE
In an interview to promote her book, Ronda Rousey gave her honest assessment of WWE. The star revealed she has no intention of ever going back to the company, so was fine to be blunt in her response, calling it a “s**t show” behind the scenes.
During another excerpt from the book, Ronda Rousey recalled a conversation she had with Bray Wyatt.