In an interview with Cageside Seats, Ronda Rousey spoke about leaving WWE and the conversation she had with Triple H before her exit. Rousey has been taking aim at WWE ahead of the release of her new book Our Fight, taking shots at the company’s “casting couch culture” and former Chairman Vince McMahon. Here are highlights:
On hiding concussion symptoms and how they built up over time: “I had a very rich concussion history before I even started in MMA. For my entire judo career, which was like 10 years, I actually was experiencing concussion symptoms more often than not for an entire decade. Every single time you get one concussion, it’s easier to get the next one. And so I’d been compounding concussion after concussion after concussion for so many years that when I got into MMA, if I got any kind of significant strike, I would be seeing stars. Which is not normal. It was just that era where if you bonked your head or something like that and you told your coach, ‘I have photo vision. I have spots in my vision. I’m nauseous. I have a headache.’ They just told you to stop being a p—-y. Suck it up and go back on the mat.”
On being cleared to wrestle when she joined WWE: “They were scanning my brain and I was like please don’t find that I’m just falling apart on the inside of my skull. But they said everything looked great. I was cleared to wrestle, but I just wouldn’t be able to talk about [my concussion history].”
On getting concussions in WWE: “Nikki Bella gave me an open hand slap [in the days leading to their match at Evolution] and I was seeing stars and I had a headache for the rest of the day. I didn’t wanna say anything. I didn’t want them to say, ‘Oh, you can’t do this match that you’ve been preparing for. You can’t do this, can’t do that. And I had a lifetime of experience hiding concussions. And so now that I’ve basically putting all of that behind me, I can finally be open about these things.”
On talking to Triple H before her exit: “I had a long sit down with Triple H and I was like, ‘I can’t be associated with mediocrity.’ And that’s what they seemed to be happy with at the time. And I hope that is different now, but I can’t say… that I’ve ever experienced it any other way.”
