Despite her frustrations with the storyline changes and late notices, Rousey admits that McMahon’s creative regime did have some legitimate potential for genius, such as with her “I Quit” Match against Charlotte Flair at WWE WrestleMania Backlash in 2022.

“There are some days that we’d be able to hammer through something good and somehow be able to pull it off with no time to rehearse it,” Rousey said. “Like me and Charlotte’s I Quit Match, we didn’t have the match agreed upon what it was until 30 minutes before. I had 30 minutes to memorize it without even being able to be out there to practice it … It could have been great. It was good, but imagine what we could have done with my WWE debut where we had six weeks to put it together with the best minds in the business. We had it figured out 100% like two weeks before. Then we had two weeks to rehearse it and it shows. It was f***ing brilliant.”

Another memorable match in Rousey’s in-ring career came at WWE WrestleMania 35, when she, Flair, and Becky Lynch competed in the first ever all-women’s main event on WWE’s grandest stage. While certainly a milestone, Rousey believes that its quality pales in comparison to her debut match, which she, Kurt Angle, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon spent weeks preparing for beforehand.

“When we main-evented WrestleMania, it was some s*** that we threw together the night before. We were still trying to figure it out the day of, and it shows then,” Rousey said.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Lapsed Fan” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.