Ronda Rousey says relationship with fans part of reason for leaving WWE
Ronda Rousey says her relationship with fans played a part in her decision to walk away from WWE.
"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 my energy on a bunch of f---ing ungrateful fans that don't even appreciate me?" Rousey said in an interview on "Wild Ride! w/ Steve-O" that was posted to YouTube on Thursday.
Rousey had previously said that if she does return to WWE it would be as a part-time participant and explained just how grueling the schedule was for her.
"I wasn't even home when I was home," Rousey said of a schedule that required her to be on the road 200 days a year. "I was basically just trying to recover enough to be able to get to the next stint of being gone.
"People think you're only wrestling as much as they see you on TV, but they don't realize that there's three or four other days of live shows during the week. ... If I looked at all the live shows, I was only home a day and a half a week. It was just not worth it for my family."
Still, Rousey expressed love for the job, though not the fans.
"I love performing. I love the 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 and I want all my energy to go into them," Rousey said. "So that was my decision at the end of the day. It's like, 'Hey girls, love what you're doing. I'm gonna try and take all my momentum and push you guys as far as I can. Fly little birds, fly! I'm going f---ing home!' And that was basically it."
Rousey, 33, said that if she does return to the WWE it will be in a part-time capacity.
"No, I'll never be full time again -- over 200 days a year on the road like that ever again," she said. "I needed to do it in order to learn and get immersed into it and really understand what's going on, but it's just not the lifestyle for me."
Before joining the WWE in 2018, Rousey compiled a 12-2-0 record in the UFC and became the promotion's first women's champion. She also won a bronze medal in judo in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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