Ronda Rousey was a guest on the Wives of Wrestling podcast where she talked about her return to WWE. The former Raw Women’s Champion made her return at the 2022 Royal Rumble and ended up winning the match, but she admitted that the fan reaction surprised her.
“I guess the feedback I get is a live audience,” Ronda Rousey said. “There’s a lot of times where what you think is coming online and what the live audience is expressing are two opposite things. Case in point, Royal Rumble, I left as a heel and was getting booed out of every stadium, and I was like, ‘okay, so I assumed everyone thought I was still a heel’
“And any interviews I gave any time I was talking sh*t on the fans. Like, being in character for in case I come back, and that’s what I assumed I would come back to. When it ended up being not that reaction, I was really, really surprised.”
Rousey’s appearance at the Royal Rumble received a loud, enthusiastic response from the WWE Universe. Despite being too guarded to really enjoy the reaction, Rousey reveals that looking online for her before she steps into the ring would not have changed anything for her in that moment.
“I was almost like too guarded to let them make me happy in that moment, you know what I mean? But I don’t know if I’d have thought otherwise by looking at comments or anything else,” she said. “Whatever the live audience is leaving you with, is what I am assuming people feel like in general. Because, yeah, like the internet is not a good example.”