Triple H explains negotiating with Rousey and the logistics behind her Rumble surprise

Speaking to USA Today, Triple H explained the long process that it took to get Ronda Rousey signed to the WWE full time.

Triple H said that he heard years ago she was a fan and then came over to do the Ice Bucket Challenge with Stephanie McMahon during SummerSlam and that’s when she told them how much she really loved WWE and what they do.

Following their spot at WrestleMania 31, all they did was have conversations with each other, and last year she asked about coming to the Performance Center with a few friends for a bachelorette party. “And we had a discussion about it, and during that discussion, boy, it really started to come up that this is something she was not just throwing out there or suggesting – it was something that she really wanted to do,” Triple H recounted.

He said that there was no pressure to debut her at the Rumble and they knew she had been training the whole time to get in the ring but they still had yet to sit down and and nail everything down. “Once we did, the timing just worked out. Once we did, it went extremely quick from there.”

Discussing the careful planning it took to keep Rousey a complete secret for the Rumble, Triple H acknowledged the headache of bringing someone from a different country and not alert the whole world.

“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,” he said.

Triple H also added that they kept it very quite on all fronts and very few people knew, “only a handful” that were aware Rousey was going to appear at the Rumble.