Ronda Rousey Rips WWE, Vince McMahon for Treatment of Women
She said the wrestling organization has a "troubling foundational sexist, patriarchal culture."
Former UFC and WWE star Ronda Rousey is out with a new book, Our Fight, next month, and in it she doesn't hold back about her former boss and employer. In the book, Rousey takes former WWE CEO Vince McMahon to task for the company's treatment of women, comparing the disgraced wrestling mogul to Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine.
"It's hard sometimes to know where the evil, unethical, slimeball character of Vince McMahon played out for the cameras ends and the actual questionably ethical, many times sued, and multiple times accused of sexual misconduct Vince McMahon begins," she writes, according to CBS Sports.
Related: Lawsuit Accuses WWE's Vince McMahon of Sexual Assault, Trafficking
She went on to criticize WWE's Bra and Panties matches, where female wrestlers would compete to strip down their opponents, saying executives only retired the format "very reluctantly" and still didn't properly value women's contributions to the company.
Although things have changed, with women now featured more prominently in major headlining matches, Rousey said it wasn't because of leadership by the company, but the fans.
"It was only after WWE was basically arm-barred into it, following a global social media backlash to #givedivasachance after Divas were given a total of thirty seconds—less time than it takes most people to read this paragraph—for a nationally televised tag match," she wrote. "Four women were given less time to collectively wrestle than every single man on the roster got for his intro music alone."
The book then states that the WWE has a "troubling foundational sexist, patriarchal culture," and says Rousey is "disgust[ed] for the amount of sexist, degrading bulls--t [female wrestlers] were put through."
Rousey was a full-time wrestler for the WWE from 2017–2023. In a recent Instagram Q&A (per The Independent), she talked about finally being free to discuss her WWE experience.
“Behind the scenes? Oh yeah. How much of an absolute s--tshow it is at the WWE," she said. "They can’t hold the sword over my head and hold me hostage with my own career and I don’t need anything from them and I don’t intend on going back so I can actually say everything that I think and feel where everybody else that is still held captive by their organization cannot.”
McMahon resigned from WWE's parent company TKO Group earlier this year after a graphic, bombshell lawsuit accused him of sexual assault and trafficking in the workplace. He has denied the allegations.