Ronda Rousey is taking even more shots at WWE — this time directly calling out the company’s creative process, backstage structure, and the way talent were handled during her run.
While speaking to The Takedown on SI, Rousey was asked what made working in WWE so difficult. She said the biggest issue was the lack of collaboration and the last-minute nature of how things were handled.
“It was a lack of collaboration—not knowing what was going to happen until the very last minute. I mean, you’re literally going out there and you have no time to practice what you’re gonna do. You just talked about it in the hallway, you know?”
Ronda Rousey said WWE missed a major chance to treat its product more like a planned television show, with long-term direction mapped out from one WrestleMania to the next.
“I felt like it was a huge missed opportunity where you could actually figure out what you’re going to do for the season or the year—from one WrestleMania to the next—like a TV show. There are many shows that are written like this, where you figure out long-term what you’re going to do, what you’re aiming for, and what’s happening.”
She also argued that WWE should work more closely with talent, especially since wrestlers spend so much time thinking about their characters and storylines. Instead, Rousey claimed creative was often handed to performers at the last second.
“And it would be great if they actually collaborated with the talent, who spend a lot of time thinking about these characters and storylines. But instead, you would just have something thrown into your lap last minute that was half-hazardly put together by a bunch of people that hadn’t thought about it until five minutes ago.”
Rousey said that approach is why some storylines end up feeling disconnected or lacking long-term direction. The former WWE star added that trying to offer ideas did not feel like a true creative partnership. Instead, she said it felt more like negotiating.
“And that’s why you get a lot of these storylines that don’t make sense, that are disjointed, that have no long-term booking in mind. It was infuriating because we had the opportunity to make an exceptional product, and they were stuck in ways of doing things that made it so much more mediocre than it had the potential to be. So that was really frustrating. And anytime I wanted to collaborate, it didn’t feel like you were being worked with—it felt like you were bargaining. It just made it not fun.”
Rousey then summed up her frustration in blunt terms, saying WWE took something that should have been fun and made it stressful. Rousey said WWE’s creative problems were too deeply rooted for her to fix by herself.
“I was like, ‘Dude, this is the most awesome, fun thing ever. How could you take this and make it such a clusterf***, with so much anxiety? This is so not necessary. Can we just plan and work together?’I feel like there were just so many ingrained dysfunctions in the process that I wasn’t going to be the one who could single-handedly change that.”
The comments come after Rousey recently praised AEW’s looser presentation following her one-off appearance at Revolution, saying she felt less edited there than she did in WWE.
For now, Rousey is making it clear that her biggest problem with WWE wasn’t the in-ring side. It was the creative chaos, the last-minute planning, and what she saw as a missed opportunity to make the product much better.
What do you think about Ronda Rousey calling out WWE’s creative process? Do you agree with her criticism? Let us know your thoughts and leave your feedback in the comments.
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