It’s not easy getting someone as big as Ronda Rousey through an airport without anyone noticing, and no one knows that better than WWE Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events, and Creative, Paul Levesque — aka, Triple H.
In an interview with USA Today Sports, Levesque — who is married to Stephanie McMahon and the son-in-law of WWE CEO Vince McMahon — talked about what the WWE had to go through in order to get Rousey out of Colombia:
It’s harder than you think in this world of social media. As it was coming down to making the decision we wanted to do this, there were a lot of last-minute things. She was in Colombia doing the movie. Trying to get somebody on a flight that is as famous as Ronda is, and as visible as she is – and internationally she’s almost bigger than she is in he U.S. – on a flight, into the country, through customs, clear security, on another flight to Philly, shuttle to a hotel, into the service entry, brought to a bus, hidden in the arena the whole day, and not until right before she walks out there does anybody see her.
It was a monumental task, it took a large team. But it’s all for trying to create a moment for our fans, and trying to create a moment for the world where you just have… while people expect it, they don’t know. And it’s so difficult now because the second somebody is seen somewhere, social media is all over it. The world cannot wait to be the person to say ‘I was the one who saw her,’ or ‘I broke this.’ So when you’re able to pull off something that’s a big surprise like that, it’s great. Trust me, we all kept it very, very quiet on all fronts. Very few people knew… there was only a handful at best that knew.
Triple H — an abbreviation of his ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley — also talked about how Ronda got involved with the WWE.
Hunter said her involvement with the world’s biggest pro-wrestling organization happened “organically” and he and his wife were impressed wit her knowledge of their business:
…just her knowledge of what we do was so deep. She would mention at the time ‘oh I’d love to do this. When I get done, this is what I want to do.’ She would always say that, ‘this is what I want to do,’ you know, but you hear that a lot. But over the years it slowly morphed into things.
Rousey’s jump from the cage to the ring became official last weekend when she showed up at the first ever women’s Royal Rumble.
You can watch all of the action again, below:
