Former WWE Women’s Champion and UFC legend Ronda Rousey has confirmed that her time in the ring has “pretty much” come to an end.
During an appearance on The Lapsed Fan podcast, Rousey admitted that a return to the ring is looking unlikely at this point, while also discussing her motivations for joining WWE in the first place:
“Pretty much, I’d say so. I got into WWE because I wanted to be able to wrestle with my girls, you know, the Four Horsewomen and be able to wrestle with my friends. And they kind of dangled that carrot for my whole run and never let it happen.”
Continuing, Rousey also spoke about her second run in the company, which the MMA star does not look back on favourably:
“And then the second run, they kept dangling it. And then by the end, I was like, I’m f*cking leaving unless I can wrestle with Shayna [Baszler]. And that’s how I was able to do it at all.”
Making her debut at the 2018 Royal Rumble, Rousey’s first run ran until WrestleMania 35 the following year, which saw her lose the Raw Women’s Championship to Becky Lynch in the main event that also included Charlotte Flair. Booked strongly in her first run, Rousey as not pinned until the aforementioned Mania loss and her first run was well-received by fans and critics.
After having her first child with husband Travis Browne, Rousey made her return to wrestling at the 2022 Royal Rumble, and went on to win the match before losing to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 38. Rousey’s second run saw her capture more championships, but also resulted in more frustrations from the former UFC Women’s Champion. Rousey’s last match saw her lose to Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam 2023. In September of that year, Rousey also made a one-off appearance for Ring of Honor.
Ronda Rousey Elaborates On Reasons For WWE Exit
Later in the interview, Rousey noted that she sees her time in WWE as more of a sabbatical to focus on other projects, which have included acting roles and working on a graphic novel:
“That’s what made me have to step away, because it got to the point where I’m just like, they’re never going to allow me to make it as good as it can be, and, like, meeting them halfway in this range of mediocrity is like crushing my soul. So I can’t continue to do that,” she said. “So I’m going to go f*cking be awesome and doing other things.
“I’ll take everything that I learned from pro wrestling and apply it elsewhere into my other passions, you know, in comics and fight choreography and in film and screenwriting and all of these things. If anything, it was like I was doing like a sabbatical. When you go off and you study something for years and come back and utilize what you learned, that was my wrestling sabbatical.
“I will take everything that I learned from that and apply it to all the other spaces that are bringing me joy.”
H/t to F4WOnline for the use of transcriptions.
Featured image: WWE
