Ronda Rousey admits she has a hard time not taking fan reaction personally

If you watch Ronda Rousey on WWE programming, you can see how influenced she is by the crowd. There are times when Rousey is supposed to be playing an angry badass, but can’t contain a smile when she gets a pop. Then there are moments where she’s supposed to be an enthusiastic fan-favorite, but the jeers get under her skin.

During her two-and-a-half years away from WWE, Ronda was open about how pissed off she was by fans turning on her during her first run. Not long into her second, we heard a report that company officials spoke to her about not letting those feelings interfere with her current babyface character.

During a Facebook gaming stream after SmackDown last Friday (Feb. 4), Rousey admitted the “smack talk” from the audience can get to her:

“It’s hard not to take [trash talk] personally from the fans because I don’t go out there as — I mean I do go out there as a character, but I am also actually Ronda Rousey, so I don’t play Ronda Rousey on television. So sometimes I take it personally from the fans, not so much from the wrestlers. The fans, I do.”

It’s a position many can probably empathize with, and pro wrestling/sports entertainment is a bizarre job where people have to put a fictional version of themselves out there in a way neither actors or athletes do.

But it a job Rousey is paid very well for, and one she’s made harder for herself with past comments ranging from calling the performances “fake” to railing on paying customers for being “ungrateful”.

It’ll be interesting to see how crowd’s treat Ronda on the road to her WrestleMania 38 match with Charlotte Flair, and how she reacts to those reactions.

h/t Post Wrestling