Ronda Rousey credits Kurt Angle with making her believe she could truly excel in professional wrestling.
The latest episode of The Wives Of Wrestling podcast featured Ronda Rousey as a guest, and co-host Giovanna Angle spoke about how much Rousey has meant to her family. In response, the “Baddest Woman On The Planet” spoke about how Kurt Angle was an influence on her well before they ever met, explaining how he taught her to navigate the world of professional wrestling after coming from an amateur sport.
“Wow. Kurt was an influence on me before I ever met him. As an inspiring Olympian, I wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist, the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in Judo, I mean, Kurt was that hero that I had of oh, you could one day have people look up to you and like talk to you and talk about you with that reverence that people talk about Kurt like from wrestling people. So, I wanted to be the ‘Kurt Angle of Judo’ and then when I came into WWE and they partnered us up,” Rousey explained, “it was like he’s the only person that’s really put in a similar situation like that coming from the outside from other successes and starting your rookie year under a microscope in the spotlight and having no idea what you’re getting into.”
Rousey went on to explain that Angle helped her believe she could be much more than a tagalong character, noting that she gained a tremendous amount of confidence after they teamed up at WrestleMania 34.
“Having him to kind of guide me in the very beginning and him not like roll his eyes at me and all that kind of stuff,” Rousey added, “he was an awesome guide and a teacher and I just kind of felt like I was in good hands and that like, anything I aspire to be was possible because Kurt has already done it and if he could do it, I could do it kind of a thing. He’s not an alien [laughs], I could do it because he did it and maybe I could do more and he’s kind of that like — he brought the standard of what is possible to a certain level and he showed that I could do that and I could even maybe do more.
“He made me aspire to do as much as possible whereas like when I first came into wrestling, I didn’t think that like I’d even be able to have a match. [I thought] it’s just so complicated and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to have a singles run, I thought I might be able to be like a peripheral, like a helper character, to Kurt and be in a tag and stuff like that,” Rousey said. “After I worked with him, I was like maybe I actually can do this and not just be like somebody’s… whatever. [Their] Flair.” [laughs]
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