Former UFC champion turned WWE star Ronda Rousey has hit out at “ungrateful” fans as she poured cold water on the prospect of a full-time return to wrestling.
Rousey is yet to officially retire but stepped away from the WWE to start a family with husband, MMA fighter Travis Browne. Although she largely enjoyed her time with the wrestling promotion, the American said the negativity of some fans weighed her down.
“We didn’t need the money. So it’s just like, what am I doing it for if I’m not being able to spend my time and energy on my family, but instead spending my time and energy on a bunch of f***ing ungrateful fans that don’t even appreciate me,” Rousey said on Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast.
“I love performing. I love the (wrestling) girls. I love being out there, but at the end of the day I was just like, ‘F*** these fans, dude’. My family loves me and they appreciate me. I want all my energy to go into them. So that was my decision at the end of the day.”
Rousey said if she ever does return to wrestling it certainly won’t be full-time, but didn’t rule out a comeback in a part-time capacity.
Years spent in the Octagon as the face of the UFC before transitioning to the WWE has taken a toll on Rousey’s body. That physical impact, combined with the mental toll of being away from home for so long, means the 33-year-old isn’t regretting her decision to take a step back.
“Running out there, having fake fights for fun is just the best thing. I love choreography, I love acting, I love theatre,” Rousey said.
“It’s live theatre. It’s one of the last forms of live theatre, and it’s so fun.
“But I was basically doing it part-time, and I was away from home over 200 days out of the year. When I did get home, basically I was so sleep-deprived because you just don’t have time to lay down, and my back’s broke. My bottom vertebrae is like broken in half.
“They got me appraised like a house before I came to WWE, and they’re like, ‘Your back’s broke’, and I’m like, ‘Oh s***, didn’t know that. That explains a lot!’”
Rousey reigned supreme in the UFC as the women’s bantamweight champion but lost her last two fights to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes before she left MMA for the WWE.