"Rowdy" Ronda wants to earn every single bit of her keep in the WWE.
Since her official contract signing at the WWE 'Elimination Chamber' PPV last month, RAW's Ronda Rousey has made it clear over various platforms that she does not want anything handed to her; as she is looking to climb her way to the top of WWE's women's division. In another interview with SkySports, the former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion reflected on her earliest memory of being a pro wrestling fan.
"I was a huge wrestling fan and I remember how they made me feel," she said. "I was a little kid in the mid-west who could barely talk, I could barely say Hulk Hogan but I had a Hulk Hogan wrestling buddy and I would rip that thing's arm off over and over again. I wanted to be the biggest, toughest guy in the world and I wanted to be just like him."
Rousey shared that it was not until she lived with fellow mixed martial artists Shayna Baszler & Jessamyn Duke that she seemingly fell in love with the sport because of it being on the television every night.
"It wasn't until I was fighting in the UFC and Shayna and Jessamyn moved in with me and they always put WWE on the TV, it seemed like every single night," she said. "We would fight all day in the gym and when we came home we didn't want to talk about fighting, we wanted to escape through wrestling. It was our sanctuary from the stress of the fighting world and it slowly became more and more where we wanted to be.
Shayna Baszler was the first of the group to make the transition to the squared circle. Now, Shayna is in position to capture her first championship gold in WWE as she is set to take on Ember Moon for the NXT Women's Championship at TakeOver: New Orleans. Ronda Rousey credits Baszler for being a source of inspiration for her wanting to make the jump to WWE.
"Shayna was the first one of us to take that leap and she's always been an example to me. She did women's MMA before me and opened a lot of doors for all of us. If it wasn't for her making a point of us sitting down and watching wrestling together then I wouldn't be here either. When she made that jump from fighting from wrestling I saw how much happier that made her and how more applied she was. It was hard not to want to be part of that."
The three-time MMA Female Fighter of the year is determined to master the craft of pro wrestling. She shared that at times her body checks out on her and while it can be mentally and physically draining, she is determined to be the best.
"To master something new is one of my greatest pleasures in life, rather than just sitting there doing something you already know how to do," She added, "I want to be mentally pushed and challenged every day and it's hard to not be in this world and not be totally obsessed and engrossing by it. My body is aching all over and I'm mentally exhausted from everything I'm learning but I can't remember the last time I was as happy as this, maybe my wedding day."
At WrestleMania 34, Ronda Rousey will have her debut match with the company as she teams with RAW GM Kurt Angle to take on the couple of Triple H & Stephanie McMahon. We will have full coverage of WrestleMania 34, along with a post-event podcast.
