USA Today is featuring an interview with Ronda Rousey where she talks about her transition from MMA to pro wrestling and battling a speech disorder since childhood.
“I grew up with apraxia, which is a motor speech disorder. I had years of speech therapy, and I’ve always had problems slurring or mispronouncing my words. In the ring, it’s so important that you speak so clearly and you’re easy to understand and that you don’t falter at all, that it makes me more nervous and more likely to actually mispronounce things. It’s been really great for me to be able to work on it and overcome those fears that I’ve had since I was a little kid.”
Rousey also talked about expecting to get negative reactions from WWE fans.
“I expected everyone to boo me out of the building from Day One, and every time I walk out there, I feel like I’m just falling in love with every single person at once. It would be fun to turn (bad) one day but it’s addicting to have all that positivity.”
Rousey challenges Alexa Bliss tonight at SummerSlam for the RAW Women’s Title.
Jeff Hardy on taking bumps at 40 years old
TheWhig.com is featuring an interview with WWE star Jeff Hardy where he talks about feeling banged up at the age of 40 right now in his wrestling career.
“I’m 40 now and I’ve been pretty banged up lately. Four nights a week is a lot of matches — I mean they add up. And doing that Swanton every night is just rough. I’ve actually cut that out of a lot of events and I’ve just been using the Twist of Fate as a finish and it’s helped my lower back out a lot. I pretty much now save the Swanton for television unless I’m feeling really good at a live event.”
Hardy also revealed an issue recently with his elbow.
“I’m a little beat up, but my back is a lot better than it was a few weeks ago. I’ve been having this issue with my elbow, like a nerve issue, and my hand was asleep for probably seven weeks and it’s finally woken. But overall, I mean, I’m 40 years old, I feel pretty good to be wrestling the way I am today in 2018.”