MJF Hits out at Ronda Rousey After Her Distasteful Comments on WWE Pairing with Alexa Bliss

MJF calls out former WWE star Ronda Rousey after the latter targeted the Stamford-based promotion for pairing her against Alexa Bliss.

MJF Hits out at Ronda Rousey After Her Distasteful Comments on WWE Pairing with Alexa Bliss

Ronda Rousey and MJF (via WWE and AEW)

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Ronda Rousey is an icon in combat sports. As the first-ever UFC women’s bantamweight champion, she was the reason Dana White reversed his stance on never allowing women to fight in the Octagon. With six straight title defenses, record-breaking gates, and trademark submissions, Rousey cemented herself as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. However, her transition to WWE didn’t see the same level of success. 

Rousey first joined the company in 2018, where she quickly captured both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships and even became one of the first women, alongside Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, to headline WrestleMania 35. Her debut match at WrestleMania 34, teaming with Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, was hugely celebrated. 

But over time, fan support began to fade, and ‘Rowdy’ herself seemed to grow frustrated with her run. In a recent appearance on The Lapsed Fan podcast, Rousey didn’t hold back when discussing WWE’s booking decisions, particularly being matched up against multi-time title holder Alexa Bliss.

The fact that they had me fighting Alexa Bliss at all was f***ing ridiculous, and you wanna know why they had me against Alexa Bliss? Because she had the most merch sales at the time… Like, what the f**k!? That’s your decision-making process?

Ronda Rousey via The Lapsed Fan podcast

While the rivalry between professional wrestling and MMA has always been intense, it didn’t take long for former AEW World Champion MJF to fire back at Rousey’s remarks. Taking to social media, he highlighted the flaw in her criticism. Quote-tweeting Rousey’s comment, MJF wrote:

It’s almost like pro wrestling much like any professional sport functions as a business. F**king crazy.

MJF via X

Rousey’s criticism of Bliss comes across as both unfair and puzzling, especially considering that she actually defeated Bliss to capture the Raw Women’s Championship at SummerSlam 2018. For the unversed, her time in WWE officially wrapped up in the summer of 2023, where she lost her final match to close friend Shayna Baszler in an MMA Rules bout at SummerSlam 2023. 

Since leaving the company, Rousey has dabbled in the independent wrestling scene, making appearances with Wrestling Revolver and teaming with Marina Shafir in Ring of Honor. In the two years since her WWE exit, Rousey has repeatedly aimed at the promotion and criticized the Stamford-based company for the failure of her career after the UFC. 

In the same interview, the former UFC champion also took aim at Vince McMahon, bluntly referring to him as an “80-year-old f**king pervert” for how things have transpired with the former WWE CEO in his latest parade of legal issues. 

Yet, what Rousey seems to overlook is that professional wrestling isn’t structured like MMA. Not every storyline can be a one-sided squash match wrapped up in under 30 seconds. Moreover, opponents need to be competitive to build drama, advance narratives, and keep audiences invested.

Ronda Rousey highlights family pride as the reason for not agreeing to tap to Becky Lynch

Another WWE superstar caught in Ronda Rousey’s crosshairs was Becky Lynch, the woman she shared the ring with in the main event of WrestleMania 35. Lynch, widely regarded as the biggest women’s star of the past decade, has built a legendary career, one now intertwined with the ongoing World Title storyline involving CM Punk and Seth Rollins after her reveal as a member of ‘The Vision’.

Over the years, ‘The Man’ has taken down nearly every major name in women’s wrestling, including Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Trish Stratus. With such a stacked resume, Rousey admitted she had no problem losing to Lynch. What she did take issue with, however, was how she was asked to lose.

Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey

Speaking on The Lapsed Fan podcast, Rousey revealed that the idea of her tapping out to Lynch was floated more than once. But she refused, citing her mother, AnnMaria De Mars, a trailblazing judoka who became the first American woman to win gold at the World Judo Championships.

It was proposed that I tap out to her [Becky Lynch] armbar at Survivor Series, and I said my mother would disown me. Anytime anyone’s ever actually Armbar me in real life, I would just let them dislocate it. So, uhm, I’m not gonna do it. Anytime anyone ever choked me out in competition, I just went out, I don’t tap.

Ronda Rousey via The Lapsed Fan podcast

Rousey explained that her refusal also came owing to her legendary judo background. She began training at just 11 years old, later becoming the youngest judoka to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games and winning bronze in 2008. Because of that foundation and her mother’s influence, she simply would not allow herself to tap to Lynch, either in storyline or in real life.

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