Ronda Rousey Reflects On Working In WWE Under Vince McMahon: ‘No Collaboration’

Ronda Rousey was not a fan of working under Vince McMahon in WWE, detailing those experiences in a new interview. The majority of Rousey’s time in the company was with the now-former WWE Chairman in charge, and she held little back in talking about her experiences working with McMahon in an interview with The Lapsed Fan. You can see some highlights below, per Fightful:

On her using a worked armbar in WWE: “That was actually Triple H that came up with that, as being the mock armbar finisher. But, it’s also, like, you could see people laying back and they’re arching on the arm and they’re holding it straight and they’re holding it right from the — if you actually took it, it would break.”

On Vince McMahon diluting the move: “But how do you really — the one time I did do it when I leaned back on it straight was me and Becky (Lynch) … I think it was my heel turn or whatever and I felt like it had much more impact then. But, freakin’ Vince (McMahon) liked it so much, he was like, ‘Armbar her again! Armbar her again! Armbar her again!’… I know when Nia Jax is all pissed at me afterward. She was like, ‘We spent all year selling the hell out of this armbar and you just did three of ‘em to Becky like it was nothing.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m like an avatar for a f**king 80-year-old f**king pervert on the phone, alright? I have no say in this. What are we supposed to do?’”

On working in WWE when Vince McMahon was in charge: “It’s just an absolute s**tshow. There was no collaboration. It was basically, like, you would spend so much time and effort thinking about the story and how you could make it better and they wouldn’t talk to you at all and they would spend like five minutes thinking about it the night before, and then throw you a version of it that was a complete s**tshow, and it wasn’t a collaboration. It was like a negotiation to try to get it to not suck as much as possible. And then you go out there and it’s like, the final iteration of you trying to be, ‘Can this be changed? Can this be changed?’ How can I make this not absolutely f**king suck? And then, you go out there and you do something that you have not even been able to practice and you don’t even really believe in and that’s what’s coming across.

“And so they were only, like, spending a little bit of time on The Bloodline because (Paul) Heyman was the head of all of that and he was like the Vince-whisperer of being able to get s**t through, and it shows. It shows that, oh, we’re gonna spend some time and effort on this and f**k everybody else and we’re just gonna fly on the seat of our pants and that’s why they’re just doing the same rehash s**t over and over and over again because that was just what Vince came up with the night before, you know? And it was just all bottlenecked through there and just really took the funnest thing that is such a great time when you’re out there with your friends and you’re doing something you really believe in. There was some flashes in the pan. He had some flashes of brilliance and there’s some days that we’d be able to hammer through something good, somehow be able to pull it off with no time to rehearse it. Like me and Charlotte’s ‘I Quit’ match, we didn’t have the match agreed upon when it was until 30 minutes before and I had 30 minutes to memorize it without even being able to be out there to practice it.”

On if McMahon ever said or did anything that caught her offguard: “No. I just kind of didn’t give a f**k (if Vince McMahon said or did something that caught me off guard) … He was just, like, a roundabout dick. But, yeah, I think if he actually said some s**t to my face, he would have got something back. I think he was aware of that. So it was more, like, shiesty, carny s**t, which I was used to. Working with Dana (White), who was like the most straightforward person ever and then, Vince would just say whatever he had to say to get me out of the room and then do some shiesty, carny s**t after that and I’m like, ‘The f**k!?’ It just got to a point where I’m like, I can’t work with people who aren’t straightforward.”