Ahead of her clash with Gina Carano this weekend, former UFC champion and WWE Superstar Ronda Rousey has opened up about her impact on women's wrestling and the frustrations she feels surrounding one of the biggest matches of her pro wrestling career.
Rousey, who made history by headlining WrestleMania 35 in a Triple Threat Match against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair (the first women's match to ever close the show at the Show of Shows), expressed mixed feelings about the milestone bout.
While proud of the accomplishment, Rousey told Complex Sports that she felt the in-ring product fell short due to insufficient preparation time.
"Yeah, I remembered we had no time at all to put it together, that we spent a year promoting it and like a day and a half putting it together," the Baddest Woman on the Planet recalled. "And it seemed like such a shame because my first debut match, we spent like six weeks putting it together, and we had all the best minds in the industry coming and giving their two cents and like tweaking it and making it better and better and better, until like the day that we came and we went out and did it."
"And I think that main event, though the milestone itself was incredible, I feel like the match unfortunately wasn't as great as it could have been if we were able to put the same kind of preparation, the kind of preparation into it that I felt like it deserved."
Despite any in-ring regrets, Rousey remains immensely proud of her broader influence. She doesn't hesitate to claim credit for shifting industry perceptions about women's drawing power.
"I’m very aware that women are headlining WWE because of me," Rousey told Sports Illustrated. "That women are headlining and making big paydays in boxing because of me. In bare-knuckle boxing, in full-contact karate, in everything that’s a contact sport. I’m very, very proud of seeing all the success the women are having, because I was able to prove their commercial viability, and everyone’s trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle."
It's always interesting to hear from Rousey on her time in WWE. Her having six weeks to lay out her first match in the company makes sense because she'd never wrestled before. However, that would be unprecedented for someone who had been competing as long as she had by the time that WrestleMania 35 main event rolled around.
As for her taking credit for the rise of the women's division, her contributions are significant, but many in the current locker room will likely feel differently.