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Most of the Ronda Rousey talk lately has been about her shift to tag wrestling, and the status of her injured arm heading into WrestleMania 39 this upcoming weekend.
Rousey redirected the conversation with an Instagram post plugging an upcoming episode of her “Ronda on the Road” vlog. That YouTube series has been chronicling last summer & fall, when Rousey was feuding with Liv Morgan over the SmackDown Women’s title. In the caption, she says the Morgan program was “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.”
Not sure there are technically any octogenarians behind-the-scenes at WWE, but we’ll just assume Ronda is using the term to mean “old and out of touch” and not “a person between the ages of 80-89”.
The main person who’s accused of being out of touch in WWE creative is Vince McMahon, and he is pushing 80. The 77 year old was also “retired” for most of the time Rousey & Morgan were feuding (July 2’s Money in the Bank to Oct. 8’s Extreme Rules). Perhaps she’s referring to 63 year old Michael Hayes, or 60 year old Bruce Prichard? Ronda always seemed to get along with 53 year old Triple H, but things don’t seem to be as rosy in the Rousey/WWE relationship as they were when she first joined the company in 2017.
She’s not the first person to complain about her booking, or the lack of focus on women’s wrestling. She does a have a more specific complaint in the video clip of the post, however, where she comments that WWE could have made a bigger deal about her appearance at Anaheim, California’s Honda Center — the site of UFC 157, where she won the first women’s fight in the mixed martial arts company’s history.
“Usually, I’m totally down to do a pre-taped backstage and not be under the pressure of doing something live, but they want to do like a backstage pre-tape today and I feel like it is wasting the significance of this place. Because when I’m standing in the middle of that ring, I’m standing in the exact spot where, you know, [I] started the women’s revolution in combat sports.”
Ronda then goes on to read a poem she wrote that blends work & shoot about how WWE repackaged her revolution and is now squandering it by pushing people like Liv.
As Rousey has gone from WrestleMania main event-er to allegedly requesting a spot in the women’s tag division (something that’s clearly lower priority and profile for WWE), there have been lots of theories about how she feels about her pro wrestling career. When she was a guest-starring at WrestleMania 31 with The Rock, it was her dream job. But her full-time run didn’t seem to be a dream come true, something she blamed the fans for during her hiatus. Now her second run seems to be disappointing all involved, and she’s pointing the figure at some nameless, faceless people backstage.
Good thing she doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation.
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