UFC And WWE Star Ronda Rousey Refers To Ousted Chairman Vince McMahon As “Emperor Palpatine” In New Memoir
If Ronda Rousey has ever been accused of pulling punches, that is a fabricated charge because she isn’t holding back on her former employer WWE, or the upper management – save for a select few.
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In her memoir Our Fight, she has pointed things to say about the wrestling federation’s disgraced ex-chairman Vince McMahon, whom Rousey compares to Palpatine from Star Wars movies. However, she started with nice things to say about his daughter Stephanie and son-in-law Paul “HHH” Levesque.
“NXT was founded by and under the control of Triple H, real name Paul Levesque. In addition to being my in-ring WrestleMania nemesis, he is arguably one of the best professional wrestlers in history and one of the better people on the business side,” Rousey said in a snippet from her memoir provided by Cageside Seats.
“He is married to Stephanie McMahon, who is the daughter of WWE’s Emperor Palpatine, Vince McMahon,” Rousey continued. “Vince took over the company from his father in the early 1980s and spent the better part of forty years playing a real-world pro-wrestling version of Monopoly, buying up and absorbing smaller promotions until he basically owned them all.”
Taking a jab at his on-screen heel persona, she added, “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. That blurred line between character and reality is a recurring theme within the WWE Universe.”
Rousey also took aim at WWE’s deal with Saudi Arabia to bring events to the Kingdom, saying, “[Pay-per-views are] held in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, as well as now twice a year in Saudi Arabia, a nation that restricts the rights of women in a way that I’m certain Vince McMahon wishes he could.”
The former Women’s Champion also called out the company’s treatment of its female roster over the years. “WWE loves to do well-produced video segments about the legacy of women within the organization, but the truth is women have largely been footnotes. For the longest time, they were relegated to serving male characters in a valet role, an overly sexualized supporting character that takes cheap shots when the ref isn’t looking,” she began.
“Over time, as the level of female talent grew and society as a whole started to shift, the organization gradually expanded the role of female wrestlers,” Rousey wrote. “WWE bills itself as a sports entertainment organization, and just like in the mainstream entertainment industry, there was, by all accounts, a casting couch culture where men backstage in powerful positions pressured female talent for sexual favors in return for airtime.”
Remarking on the scandals that recently went public, Rousey alluded to more that was probably covered up. “There were so many public accusations and scandals it’s hard to keep track, and more that I’m sure the WWE managed to sweep under the ring,” she explained.
Vince McMahon was removed from the board of WWE’s new parent company TKO after the allegations in Janel Grant’s sex trafficking lawsuit against him and the company came to light. It’s believed he is gone for good and according to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, no one wants him back.
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“People who were even in a situation where they’d been defending other people in the company, nobody bothers to try and defend Vince to me. It’s almost like they’ve thrown in the towel on him. It’s like, ‘He’s gone and we can’t even try to defend him,’” Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio via NoDQ.com.
Rousey took one last swipe at the wrestling industry in the passage from her memoir when she declared its “foundational” problems are “sexist” and “patriarchal.” “Presented this information as a person outside of the wrestling world you might draw the conclusion that there is a troubling foundational sexist, patriarchal culture within the WWE. You would be right,” she said.
“I have nothing but respect for the female wrestlers who paved the way for women wrestlers today. And nothing but disgust for the amount of sexist, degrading bullshit they were put through,” Rousey added.
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