Former WWE Superstar Defends Ronda Rousey's Comments

Ronda Rousey's recent sprout of shoot interviews lambasting the WWE fanbase have worked (pun intended) the online wrestling world into a frenzy, some condemning her remarks while others have defended them, including a former WWE superstar.

To recap, on an appearance on the Steve-O podcast, Rousey said of her ongoing hiatus from WWE "the thing is I love performing, I love the girls. I love being out there but, at the end of the day, I was just like, ‘F**k these fans, dude.’" She continued, "It’s like, ‘Hey girls, love what you’re doing. I’m gonna try and take all my momentum and push you guys as far as I can – fly little birds, fly! I’m going f**king home.’ And that was basically it."

While reactions from current and former WWE stars ranged from Alexa Bliss admonishing the use of the word "fake", to Nia Jax challenging the former UFC champion to a shootfight, to Hulk Hogan deciding the shoot was actually a work, former Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry defended Rousey and compared her to Kurt Angle. "She’s 100% right. And like I said that we should appreciate the essential workers? We should appreciate people like Ronda Rousey and Rob Gronkowski. All of the people that have come to WrestleMania that were not wrestlers. Yes, you’re judged by different grade, but every now and then you get one or two or three people like Ronda Rousey and a Kurt Angle who come into the sport; and they’re so damn good, that what would it look like if they had been in forever?"

He continued by saying "what if in 1996 when I came into pro wrestling Kurt Angle came in? It would have been so good. But that’s not our reality. Ronda Rousey? She did movies, she fought professionally for years since she was a teenager. She trained, and even before then she trained. Man…10 years old in judo! Like she spent her whole life in other entertainment all together. And then she comes in to ours, and she’s in for maybe a year or two at the highest level? Then she drew better than everybody."

Before he was a professional wrestler, Henry was an Olympia weightlifter and strongman, a Pan American gold medalist, and remains the WDFPF (World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation) record holder for squat, deadlift and total. He is currently signed to WWE under a Legends contract, and is the co-host of the Busted Open Radio podcast.

Henry's comments weren't the only ones in support of Rousey. Fellow MMA vet Shayna Baszler tweeted out:

As reporter earlier, she also sent a second (now-deleted) tweet which read "You think you know what REAL is? #Reality #F—Kayfabe".