Ronda Rousey Talks to WWE About Her Memoir, If She’ll Ever Return to the Squared Circle

WWE.com recently posted an exclusive interview with current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey, who made headlines at WrestleMania 31 by appearing in the squared circle.

Rousey discussed her memoir “My Fight/Your Fight,” her relationship with Gene LeBell, as well as a possible return to WWE somewhere down the road:

WWE.COM: Why was now a good time to publish your memoir?

RONDA ROUSEY: Well, it just seemed like so much has happened that if I wait until the end of my career, it’s going to be a thousand-page book. And I honestly wouldn’t have done it now if it didn’t just happen that my sister’s an award-winning sports journalist, and she would be able to write it with me. So, everything just kind of fell together and I was really happy to do such a big project like this with her. We’re a lot closer now because of it.

WWE.COM: Gene LeBell, who wrestling fans know quite well going back to his territorial days in California and his influence on everyone from Roddy Piper to Daniel Bryan, has been a big part of your life. Could you speak a bit about your relationship with him?

ROUSEY: Growing up, I never knew that Gene was as famous and as legendary as he is. To me, he was just “Uncle Gene.” And I remember, at one of my first judo tournaments, he came up to me and gave me one of his patches. It said, “Break a Leg,” meaning good luck. I never knew until I was much older, actually, like after I already retired from judo and was getting into MMA, when he gave me his autobiography. I read it and I was shocked. I never knew. I knew that he did judo and was like the big ol’ bada** back in the day, but I never knew. He’s so humble that he never talks about everything that he’s done. And so, it’s something that I discovered way later. I was like, “Uncle Gene, how did you never tell me all of this?”

WWE.COM: With a little bit of hindsight, though, how would you describe the WrestleMania experience?

ROUSEY: It was like if you were an avid baseball fan your whole life, and you went to watch the World Series and they asked you to come in and pinch hit, and you went out and hit a home run in front of everybody. It was that level of “dream come true.”

WWE.COM: Do you think that will be the last time we see you in a WWE ring?

ROUSEY: You know, I was backstage and I got to talk several wrestling legends, so many. It’s such an over-stimulating day that I forgot who told me this, but he said, “You never really retire from wrestling; you can’t. You just step away for awhile.” Life is pulling me in a bunch of different directions and I’m forced to step away for awhile. But there’s no way, after getting a taste like that, I could never go back in for seconds.

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

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