Fall 2024, Episode 4

September 17, 2024

Host: Jay Cortes

Co-Host: Marina Gonzales

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome, Runners, to the fourth episode of Runner On-Air.

I’m your host, Jay Cortes.

And I am your co-host, Marina Gonzalez.

It is Tuesday, September 17th, and let’s get started with some local news out of ABC 23 Bakersfield.

Local sisters partner with community organizations to start foundation.

It talks about Bakersfield sisters Gilma Hernandez and Norma Monterozza are setting up a foundation to feed the unhoused.

They are partnering with local organizations to expand their reach, doing something good for the community.

They also have a headline that reads, Pioneers of Change.

Hispanic Heritage Month honors local leaders creating a positive impact on Bakersfield.

And this month is a start to Hispanic Heritage Month this week.

I believe it is from September 15th to October 15th.

So there’s been a lot of different events going on to support Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrate Hispanic Heritage.

And we also have a summer showdown at Kern Valley High School, and it is preparing FFA students for a Kern County Fair to show their animals.

Interesting.

And I guess, do you know if the Kern County Fair is going on right now, Marina?

I’m not sure.

I think it may have started because, I mean, it is gonna go on probably till like the middle of October.

So students are showcasing their animals.

They have spent months raising.

It’s like a Junior Livestock Show.

It takes place September 26th to the 28th.

All right, well moving on to the Runner Archive.

We’ve been doing this now to celebrate the Runner’s 50th anniversary, and it’s turning 50 this year.

So we got an archive from about 1970-ish.

When was the school started?

1979, I think, or 78?

Yeah, somewhere around the 70s.

That’s when it started.

Well, the Runner has been publicating for 50 years, and I pulled one from September 17th, 1997, and the cover is a student celebrating heritage, and it’s showing Hawaiian aloowa photos of dancers.

I also found an interesting piece in this newspaper.

In the sports section, they have something called Beat the Experts, where your picks for each NFL games, you enter each pick that you think is going to win, and you cut out a piece of the newspaper, and you place it under the door at the lab room in 166 at the time, and you could see if you could beat the experts.

They have the expert picks of the NFL, of who they think is going to win that week, and the winner gets, is announced on Wednesdays, so they probably get a prize.

I thought that was interesting.

We no longer do that, the Beat the Experts sports edition.

I guess everything’s more online polls now, so we wouldn’t rip out a piece of paper and then have them turn that in, but it seems like super interactive and super fun.

So I also have one from September 16th in 1998, and this one shows a Hispanic Hollywood star, Edward James Olmos, and he comes on campus to support Hispanic students, and it was a presentation at a keynote on September 26th at the end, at the 15th annual dinner of Hispanic Excellence Scholarship Fund at the Holiday Inn.

So he did a presentation, and I guess the fund at the time had raised more than $185,000, and given away 50 to 60 scholarships annually.

So that was an interesting headline from September 16th, 1998.

That’s so cool they managed to get a big-time Hispanic actor like him to come to this campus to do a presentation.

Yeah, that’s a big name.

He’s been in a bunch of movies.

Is he still alive?

Yeah, he’s like, he’s 77.

He’s approaching 80.

Do you know if he’s been in any films recently?

I don’t know.

I don’t know if he’s still acting right now.

He probably still is.

Let’s check it out.

He’s still acting.

He’s 77 years old.

He was in American Me, Stand and Deliver, Selena.

Those are the three like hits right there.

Oh yeah, I love Selena.

Oh wow, he was on the Mayans.

Motorcycle Club, did you ever watch that?

It’s like a Sons of Anarchy spinoff.

I’ve heard of it, but no, I’ve never seen it.

Yeah, I haven’t.

I think I watched like a few episodes at the beginning.

I kind of like lost track of it, but I was really into Sons of Anarchy.

That was a fun, well, it was kind of a serious show, but it was fun to watch.

All right, cool.

So moving forward, that was the Renner Archive.

We’re going to be doing that.

We’re going to be trying to do that every week to pull files out from the 50 years past and talk about what headlines had happened decades ago.

So from 1998-1997 today, I’ll try to go back further.

All right, and now we’re moving forward to another book review.

Would you call these recommendations as well?

I feel like you’ve recommended every single book you’ve read.

Oh yeah, I mean these books, I mean the books that I read, because I mean if people are like maybe a fiction fan, they love to read autobiographies, they’re sports fans, or maybe if they’re Star Wars fans, then yeah, I would recommend that they read these books.

Okay, have you ever like really been excited for a book and you were like really looking forward to it and then you read it and you’re like wow, I don’t, I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody.

I mean, I always get excited whenever a book, you know, that catches my interest.

Anytime a new book that like is in the genre type that I like, I always get excited for a new one to come out, but I still do recommend the book to people for them to read.

Mm-hmm.

So any books a good book to you?

Yeah, basically.

Nice.

Do you ever like do research on like a book, like an author beforehand to see, or like what what do you go off of when you’re looking for a book?

Like do you just look at the cover or do you do like your research on the author?

Well, whenever there’s a book that catches my attention, I mean usually it’s the cover that catches my attention, but then you know I read like the, I basically read like the little description of like what the book is about and then, then yeah, I basically like look up the author to see who was written by and to see what other books the author has written before.

Okay, and what are some of your like favorite author?

Ooh, that’s a little, that’s a little tough.

I don’t particularly.

I guess there, there’s not one author you’re like no matter what like they drop, I’m gonna read it.

Yeah, yeah, that’s basically it.

I mean, I don’t really have a favorite right now, but basically if there is a book that I’m, that catches my attention, then yeah, I will.

Okay.

I definitely want to get that book so I can read it.

So you’re pretty open about reading, like you’ll read any type of book or autobiography, fiction, nonfiction.

Okay, cool.

And so today we have, what book did you bring us today?

So the book I’m gonna be talking about, it is one I’ve been very excited to read.

It’s called Our Fight by Rhonda Rousey, and this is a woman that I have been following ever since she made her debut into the WWE.

Yeah, and the cover is a pretty cool.

She has some interesting gloves.

They like only cover her knuckles.

They’re not like traditional UFC gloves.

Yeah, she changed up her, her fighting gloves when she joined WWE.

Those are like the type of gloves that she wore in every wrestling match that she competed in, and including, including in her debut match as well.

So she still wears those gloves when she fights?

Those, they’re like leather looking UFC gloves.

I actually have the gloves at home because I, because I, because I found, because when I became a Rhonda fan, I found the gloves on Amazon, which is like part of her, the new merchandise that WWE created for her.

So it’s like officially like WWE sponsored merch?

Yeah, so I bought, I bought the gloves once I found them online.

Dude, that’s sick.

So she offers like official merch, so you can get like her whole cosplay?

Yeah, and I also have a, I also have a Rhonda t-shirt as well that I got in the WWE Slam Crate.

You know, like, you know, Loot Crate is where you can get like cool, like pop culture merchandise, but they also do Slam Crate where you can get wrestling merchandise as well.

Is it for SummerSlam?

No, it’s not, not for SummerSlam.

It’s just Slam Crate.

They’ll send you action figures, t-shirts, little books about like superstars and stuff.

So this is like a monthly subscription type deal?

Yeah, we used to have it, but then we stopped doing it because, you know, it was just getting a little pricey.

We just wanted to like cut back on some stuff a little bit.

So do you know the fighter you’re gonna get when you get the crate, or like, do you get to pick the fighter, or is it just completely random?

I think it’s just random.

Oh, I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds cool like if you’re a super fan, because you’ll know, like, guarantee you’re gonna get merch.

Yeah, exactly.

Like official merch.

That’s pretty sick.

Okay, I also noticed like on the cover, she has some pretty sick makeup.

Oh yeah, every time Ronda goes goes into a wrestling match on, whether if it’s like Raw, SmackDown, or a pay-per-view, you know, she always wears like sick, awesome, fighting makeup to look good for a for a match.

Yeah, she definitely has like a cool rock star image going on, like just judging from the cover.

Oh yeah, and guess what?

Her theme, her entrance theme song is Bad Reputation by Joan Jett.

That’s funny.

So as far as WWE, is she like a, like on top, like is she a champion, or is she kind of just like a middle, like a middle?

Well, actually, she’s not.

She’s actually just retired from wrestling this year, I believe.

Oh, no way.

Yeah, she’s retired from the WWE now?

Yeah, she officially decided to retire because, because she’s also, she’s a, she’s also a wife, a mother, and a stepmom as well.

So she basically just wants to be home more for her family.

Okay, I guess that’s a good way to transition into the book.

So is this more of like an autobiography, then, of her life, or how would you like describe the style of the book?

Well, the book is basically an autobiography about like all the struggles that she went through, and also it talks a little bit about her, her career in the UFC before she finished up in MMA, and then, and then eventually worked her way into pro wrestling.

Okay, so as the start of the book, like how young does it start, her autobiography?

How her book begins, it basically starts like after she lost her big-time fight against Holly Holm, after her.

Okay, yeah, that was a crucial point in her career.

Yeah, that big point in her career was when she competed in a fight with Holly Holm, and she lost big-time, and she had an undefeated streak of 15 fights.

Yeah, yeah, she was on top of the UFC for a while.

Yeah, and she was also like, Ronda was like one of the first female fighters to ever join the UFC.

She basically helped, she basically helped break down barriers for women in MMA fighting.

Yeah, she really did, and she was extremely marketable, so I feel like Dana White really put her like on the spotlight, and made her like the star, kind of like women’s Conor McGregor, almost.

And she became like the first female bantamweight champion.

Yeah, she was on top, and she was definitely a champ before Holly Holm came in, and then it feels like it all just went downhill after that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what she talks about, like after she lost her big fight, she just basically felt like her whole world was like collapsing on her, like she basically like kind of went into hiding.

She was like trying to take time to recover from a fight after suffering like a lot of injuries from that fight, and like basically she just was going through so much like, like inside her because of that big-time loss.

Yeah, and it probably didn’t help all the criticism, because she was getting a lot of criticism online around that time, saying that she was like exposed, or that she wasn’t really like that good, so it was probably a tough time.

Does it backtrack, or does it keep going like, like from that date of her fight, and then just keep going closer to current, how, how she’s currently like retiring, or does it backtrack into like when she was in high school?

It does backtrack a little bit into her past.

She’s also been, she has been competing in sports since she was a teenager.

She started doing judo when she was like 11.

Her mom is also a judo champion as well.

Was she ever in the Olympics?

Yeah, she actually won an Olympic medal in the judo Olympics.

Wow, so was that before UFC?

Yeah, that was before, because she started doing like martial arts when she was younger.

She didn’t like join UFC until she was like in her 20s.

Mm-hmm, yeah, because I feel like she got the spotlight put on her, obviously, during UFC, but maybe her career beforehand isn’t as well known, because I didn’t know she was like a judo, a judo champ.

You said she got a which medal?

She actually earned a gold medal.

Oh, wow, nice.

So that would have been like what year?

I don’t know what year, but this happened, but she earned that medal when she was like a teenager.

Okay, so it talks about her like upbringing into fighting.

Like what got her into fighting to start off?

Like was it her parents, or she just like her family had already been fighting?

I mean her mom was, her mom was a judo champion.

I guess her mom was basically like her inspiration to like compete in the Olympics and become a judo fighter as well.

Yeah, that’s awesome, because I feel like normally it’s like the father is into sports, but that’s awesome that her mom was the one that got her into it.

So it’s just like her, like the women in her family just kicked butt.

Oh yeah, her mom, her mom, from what I hear, her mom is a tough woman.

Wow, that’s, that’s cool.

So when she got into the UFC, it talks about her loss to Holly Holmes.

So it, does it go into her transition and how she was like, like how did the WWE even come up?

Like was she approached by them?

So, so Ronda didn’t get into wrestling because she’s actually best friends with three other female fighters, Jessamyn Duke, Shayna Baszler, and Marina Shafir.

All three of these ladies joined WWE.

They were already on before her?

Yeah, basically, she basically got encouraged by her friends because I mean she also got to watch her friend Shayna Baszler compete in the Mae Young Classic, which was a women’s tournament that they had back in 2018 in WWE, because they were, Ronda started to see how like women were starting to progress more in WWE and how they were starting to get like more opportunities, basically being treated like equals to the men as well.

Yeah, I feel like before in the 90s, it was like the women were like just seen as like sexy.

Yeah, and then the men were like the real fighters.

Yeah, see, yeah, because back in the 90s to the early 2000s, women were, were just seen as like managers or side accessories to the men and they would also have like women competing like these strange bikini contests or bra and panties matches, which is ridiculous.

And then, you know, and then when the Divas era came by, you know, the Divas did have a championship, which was the Divas Championship and it was like that pink butterfly type of feminine championship.

Actually, I actually have a replica of that championship belt.

Yeah, but still when the Divas era was around, the women were still not getting a whole lot of opportunities.

They had to do like very short promos, they had to do short matches and all that thing until they finally reached a breaking point and decided we can’t deal with this anymore.

We want to be treated like equals and have more matches.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah, I could definitely see that they take the, the women’s side more serious and even the owner isn’t the, isn’t it like Vince McMahon’s daughter?

Didn’t she like take over?

Well, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are the ones in charge.

They’re married now, right?

Oh, they’ve been married for like the past 20 years.

Yeah, so I feel like even like Stephanie McMahon’s role has changed.

Like I feel like before you, she was like how you’re saying like the manager, like just an assistant and now she’s like the owner of the whole thing.

Oh yeah, but Stephanie has also wrestled before as well.

She’s also a former women’s champion too.

Yeah, so she’s definitely probably helping that like, like that movement of women empowerment and wrestling.

Definitely.

That’s cool.

So does it talk about like her transition from UFC and WWE?

Did she have any like, like you’re saying her friends encouraged her, but did she have any like negatives to where she was like maybe thinking about not doing it because of like the fact that she’s coming from a sport that’s not, that’s more like a traditional sport, like competitive, whereas like wrestling is more like entertainment?

I mean yeah, I think she did because you know she was coming from a real, I mean because of her background in being, doing real fights and not like theatrical kind of fights and wrestling with this kind of thing.

I mean she probably did have her doubts about it, but then she ultimately decided, you know, I am gonna give wrestling a shot.

Yeah, so well going into WWE, do you feel like she made more money in WWE or UFC?

I think, I think she made quite a bit of money in WWE.

Yeah, I feel like she probably made more money in WWE.

She was getting good endorsements at the UFC, but I feel like it was such a short amount of time, whereas the WWE, so it was more stable for her.

Oh yeah, the very first appearance that she ever did in WWE, it was back in 2015.

It was WrestleMania 31.

It’s when Triple H and Stephanie were doing this like promo in front of the audience, and then surprisingly Dwayne The Rock Johnson came out, came to the ring, and he started like getting into this a little altercation with, with Triple H and Stephanie.

Yeah.

And then when Stephanie gave him like a big slap, The Rock gets out of the ring and he sees Ronda sitting down there front row, and then she gets into the ring with him, and they had this like crazy like…

So that was like her introduction?

Yeah, that’s basically her introduction, because she had this like, because…

She had like a scuffle with The Rock?

No, not a scuffle with The Rock.

She and The Rock had a scuffle with Triple H and Stephanie.

So it ended up being like a tag team match, but she was like pulled from the crowd.

No, it wasn’t a, it wasn’t an actual match.

It was just like a theatrical like promo that they did.

Yeah.

And then, oh, and there’s this awesome scene where The Rock starts like punching Triple H back into the corner, and when he comes out, Ronda judo throws him.

Dude, that’s sick.

Yeah, because she’s tough.

For her to judo throw a big guy like Triple H.

Yeah.

That’s awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah, she’s definitely strong for sure.

So I’m sure like, yeah, she knows what she’s doing at the WWE.

Well, now that she’s retired.

Well, uh, so The Rock, didn’t he retire and then come back?

Um, oh yeah.

At WrestleMania this year, it was the first time, the first Mania he had competed in, in over 12 years.

So do you think maybe Ronda will retire and then come back?

I mean, maybe she will and stuff, but you know, we’ll just have to wait and see if she actually does.

So does the book go into her retirement or like she hadn’t thought about retirement when this book released?

Well, actually, she did ultimately decide that she had reached a point in her life where she just wanted to be done with wrestling and just wanted to be home more for her family because she had also become a new mom at the time.

Her, she and her husband Travis, her husband Travis Brown is also a former fighter as well.

Okay.

Yeah, they had had a baby, a baby daughter together and she wanted to be home more because she was dealing like with a lot of stress of being a new mom and also traveling and doing all, competing in wrestling and all that stuff.

She really just wanted to be done with it so she can be home more and be more of a mom to her daughter.

So when was this book released?

Oh, it was released this year.

Oh, so it is recent and then she retired this year, so it does go into it pretty accurately then.

Yeah.

And how old would her daughter be now then?

I think her daughter is like, because she, her daughter was born during, was born during the pandemic.

Oh, okay, so like 2020-ish?

Yes, I think she’s probably like two or three years old.

Okay, so then would she have given birth while she was at the WWE?

Like, did she ever come out pregnant?

No.

For a match?

No, she didn’t, she didn’t decide to become a mom until after she competed in her big-time WrestleMania match at WrestleMania, at WrestleMania 35 and this was like the biggest match of her, one of the biggest matches of her career.

It was, it was a triple threat match, a winner-takes-all for the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Oh, they were combining them?

No, not combining them, it was for both the championships.

Oh, but it was a tag team?

No, it was a triple, it was a triple, it was a triple threat match.

Like three people fight at the same time?

Yeah, it was a triple threat match.

Ronda was the Raw Women’s Champion at the time, Charlotte Flair was the SmackDown Women’s Champion.

Is that Ric Flair’s daughter?

Uh-huh, Charlotte Flair, Ric Flair’s daughter.

That’s insane, okay.

Yeah, Charlotte Flair was SmackDown Women’s Champion at the time and then the other woman competing was Becky Lynch.

And she didn’t have a champion?

No, she wasn’t champion.

So she was like the challenger?

Yeah, it was a, it was a triple threat winner-take-all match for both the championships.

That’s cool.

And it was also the first time women main evented WrestleMania.

Yeah, that’s insane.

They were the main event.

Dude, that’s sick.

So who won?

Ronda won?

Oh no, Becky Lynch won.

So she took everyone’s?

She took both the championships.

Holy crap.

But after Ronda lost that match, that’s when she decided that I need to step away from WWE for a little bit so I can start a family.

So from there, she had already kind of taken a few years back before she like officially retired?

Like she had already like slowed down her matches?

Well, after she really competed?

Oh yeah, after she had her daughter and then she and then when the pandemic, you know, started to like disappear and stuff, that’s when she decided to make her come back.

She made her return.

Okay, okay.

She made her return by being a surprise entrant in the Women’s Royal Rumble.

So they did kind of get her like back and forth a little bit already where she took some time off and then came back to it.

So this retirement does feel like a little more official.

Mm-hmm.

These might be done with like sports just all together and she’s ready to to like move on and start her family and grow in that direction.

Oh yeah, and you know what?

Do you want to know what Ronda’s debut match was?

Her debut match?

Like in the WWE?

Her first match in wrestling.

What was it?

It was at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans and Ronda competed in a mixed tag team match.

She tag teamed with WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle and competed against Triple H and Stephanie.

Oh nice, Perk Angle.

Oh yeah.

Have you ever heard that nickname for him?

No, I never heard that nickname.

Perk Angle because he was addicted to painkillers and he talks about it.

Oh yeah, and also not to mention Kurt Angle, he’s also an Olympic gold medalist as well.

Yeah, yeah.

He was like legit in wrestling way before WWE, like a legit wrestler.

Oh yeah, and he was known for driving that milk truck into the arena and started blasting people with milk.

Yeah, they have some pretty crazy scenes back then.

Like the dudes would come out in the limos or you’d have like guys come out in the lowriders or they would have like fights in the parking lot and you would see like the camera crew like running, chasing after them, making it seem like, oh crap, they’re taking this match to the parking lot.

Like they would have some pretty crazy themes.

It was fun to watch like when I used to watch WWF, WWE.

It was definitely fun to watch around the time of The Rock and like all the stars like Stone Cold and like Big Show.

They had like so many characters, like people that were just like, like sick characters like Kane.

I mean Kane went on to do movies.

The Undertaker, like those are, that’s what I remember from wrestling.

So it’s cool though now that it’s like you have Ronda fighting with like legends and then you have new women coming in and then you have like you’re saying the divas and then you even have like women owners.

So it’s just all like mixed, sick.

Oh yeah, you know Ronda’s also been in movies.

Really?

What movie?

She was in Furious 7 and she was in Expendables 3.

Oh yeah, I think she, I remember seeing her pop up on the Fast and Furious one, but there’s so many that I feel like they just all melt to me, like all the the movies.

Oh yeah, she’s awesome in Expendables 3.

Oh, I totally forgot about that one.

Are they still in the third one or did they already come out the fourth one?

They just, they released the fourth one last year, I think.

She’s only 37.

Wow, I feel like she’s done so much, like that’s a lot.

Oh, dude, she’s in Charlie’s Angels.

Oh, I didn’t know she was in that one.

It’s yeah, 2019, I guess they did a remake.

It probably didn’t score that well.

I think it went straight to Hulu or something.

So she’s in a movie called Mile 22 with, is that Mark Wahlberg?

And then she was in Entourage.

I feel like everyone was in Entourage.

In Furious 7, in Furious 7 she did this awesome like fight scene with Michelle Rodriguez.

Yeah, actually yeah, I remember that.

Like didn’t she pick her up by the leg and like throw her or something?

I think so, but Ronda and Michelle were like fighting in fancy dresses and high heels.

Yeah, she was like in a red dress, right, with like a slit.

Yeah, I think her.

But I don’t remember her in The Expendables.

Oh yeah, because she becomes part of Sylvester Stallone’s team of like mercenaries and stuff.

And they go on this like mission to like fight against Mel Gibson, who’s playing the bad guy in the movie.

Mel Gibson is a bad guy.

Yeah, but I had never heard of this Harley’s Angels one, 2019.

That’s her most recent release.

Maybe you could check that one out.

It says it’s on Hulu.

She’s also, she also plays a dispatcher, like a first responder in 9-1-1, the 9-1-1 series.

Oh, the show?

Yeah, the show.

I feel like it’s one of those shows that it’s always like in doctor’s offices or something, like playing in the background, or like the hospital.

I know 9-1-1’s about first responders.

Yeah, like I saw one where some guy got stuck on the toilet because he got like severe cramps or something.

So they had to come on an ambulance and take him off the toilet.

It’s that kind of show.

Yeah, it’s like a like a 9-1-1 slash Law & Order style.

Okay, and so how does this book end?

Like going into retirement and how she’s choosing to kind of move on and start her family?

So how the book ends is because Rhonda had also been dealing with a lot of issues backstage with like the corporate people with WWE.

She was also dealing, she was dealing with a like a lot of creative issues and how like the storylines that she was doing weren’t doing so good and like, like basically all that.

And she wanted to finish off her wrestling career by doing a rivalry with her friend Shayna Baszler.

So they weren’t happy like with her, with her viewings after a certain point?

No, she wasn’t happy with the way the creative team was working.

Like they were doing like a bunch of last-minute changes to her matches and also her storylines.

Like she was just so fed up with it.

Yeah, so she didn’t, she didn’t feel like they were like using her well enough or like her creativity like wasn’t shining?

Yeah.

Okay, and so that led to what, so that I guess the, the like the fact that her shows or her events like they weren’t really to her liking.

Like they weren’t her style.

So other people probably, I guess the fans would have noticed and then that would drive like the ratings down.

Like the big board of directors or whatever of the company are like looking at her numbers like your numbers are going down.

So it probably led to them like butting heads.

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, something like that.

But yeah, Ronda dealt with so much like creative issues and how like she felt like the, the creative team was like treating her badly and she was just like so fed up with it.

So she wanted to finish off her like wrestling career by, it was at WrestleMania last year.

She competed in a fatal four-way in tag team with Shayna Baszler for the women’s tag team championships.

And she was the one that took everyone’s belt?

She and Shayna did win that match.

They became the tag, the women’s tag champs.

Uh-huh.

And then at a pay-per-view they were going, going to defend their championships against another team of women.

And how the storyline went is that Shayna would turn, would basically turn bad guy and betray Ronda.

And it would lead to them having an on-screen feud.

Okay, so that was her way of retiring and she got like backstabbed?

Yeah, her way like Shayna backstabs her in the back because she felt like she had been always living in Ronda’s shadow and all that things and wants to make a name for herself.

So then she and, so she and Ronda would compete in like a basically like a kind of like an MMA fight match.

Mm-hmm.

At a pay, at a pay-per-view or something or a or a weekly show.

And, and Shayna defeated Ronda.

So she won and then that’s the like the career storybook ending for Ronda.

Okay, so that’s how she wanted to go out?

Yeah.

I guess that is like fitting because she, she probably feels like the like the big CEOs at WWE backstabbed her by like switching up her storylines or messing like with her character.

Okay, so does the the book kind of end on like that that note of like well now my career is done this is how they planned it for me?

No, she basically talks about like how she wanted to finish up her career and then basically just go back to her, go back home and just be there more for her family.

So for home like where is she?

She lives somewhere in LA I think.

Oh wow.

And she actually has her own little like her own little farm.

How do you have a farm in LA?

Well I think she like lives kind of like up maybe, maybe like somewhere where you can have farm land.

Huh.

But yeah, she, she and her husband Travis run their own little farm and they have you know animals that they take care of.

Well maybe I don’t know like Calabasas or something?

Because she probably has a lot of money.

Yeah probably there.

And I also just found out Rhonda is like gonna be publishing her own graphic novel.

Graphic novel?

About what?

Like she’s the author of it?

Yeah, she’s the author of it.

And is it like photos or drawings?

It’s basically like the, it’s like a regular graphic novel you know like cartoonish drawings.

It’s called Expecting the Unexpected.

So this is more like a children’s book or it’s like an adult?

It’s more of an action kind of graphic novel.

Like a comic book?

Yeah kind of like a comic book.

Like a superhero or something?

I think she plays like a spy or something.

So she’s the main character or is there like a character that?

She’s the main character.

So she made herself a spy?

That’s cool.

She plays a spy with a fake baby bum filled with guns and she built a reputation of being the deadliest hit woman on the planet.

Dude that’s insane.

That’s like some Kill Bill like Quentin Tarantino stuff right there.

Yeah she’s on the verge of, she’s on the verge of her big break from the criminal underworld.

She’s probably trying to like get a movie.

I feel like this is the first steps to that becoming a movie.

Yeah she she says it’s a mash-up of action, adventure, comedy, romance as a newly pregnant mom with a bounty on her head.

That’s sick.

I would watch that movie.

I don’t know if I would read the graphic novel but if she ever dropped that as a movie and then starred in it, I would watch that movie.

And okay so where did you get this book?

Surprisingly I found it at Target.

Nice.

You think it’s still there?

I don’t know.

I was playing, I mean I did find on Amazon.

I was planning to buy it from Amazon but when I went to Target to go buy some things that’s where I found it surprisingly.

Oh so you were just like shopping around and then you’re like oh look the book I was looking for it’s right here.

Yep.

Yeah I don’t know if they still have it.

I typed in Ronda Rousey at Target and it just has her action figure.

A plush doll that’s like punk rock.

Oh yeah oh yeah see she’s dressed up as Rowdy Roddy Piper.

Who’s that?

Oh you never heard of him?

He was a big-time legendary superstar from way back in the 80s.

Okay he was like punk rock?

No he was known for wearing the black leather jacket and a red kilt.

Oh okay.

And he also played the bagpipes.

He was also he was also a bad guy too.

Yeah.

A really famous heel on camera.

But Roddy sadly passed away from a heart attack back in 2015.

Ronda was actually good friends with Roddy because Roddy had his own like radio show in the past and he also did an episode where he interviewed her.

Oh yeah he’s got the t-shirt, the leather jacket.

Yeah he’s got the Rowdy t-shirt.

Yeah he’s got the Rowdy t-shirt and that’s also how Ronda basically like kind of did her own character because she loved Roddy.

Yeah that was like her her nickname wasn’t it?

Rowdy too?

Rowdy Ronda Rousey.

Yeah I think even in the UFC that was her nickname wasn’t it?

I think it was.

So she yeah I guess she was influenced even way before the the WWE thing.

Yeah it said he was born in 1954 died 2015.

RIP.

So she mentions him in the book as well.

Oh yeah she mentioned how Roddy’s son gave him gave her his big leather jacket that he wore all the time.

Wow.

Yeah because Ronda is now like like close friends with Roddy’s like kids and his wife as well and you know he did and Ronda really did such a great job to like spread and like worship like Roddy’s memory because he was such a big-time legendary wrestler.

Yeah that’s awesome keeping him keeping him going keeping his memory going and then that way people like learn about him still and can follow his history.

Yeah just just looking up that plush doll she’s in that Rowdy shirt with the leather jacket.

Yeah she always wore that and she also wore that the jacket and the skirt in her debut match as well.

Alright so for people that want to pick it up you would say go to Target see if it’s still there.

You can try to find this book if you’re if any of you are big Ronda Rousey fans and want to learn all about her struggled and her life and career as a MMA fighter and a WWE superstar then I would definitely recommend that you find her book Our Fight by Ronda Rousey in any of your local bookstores.

If not then you can definitely get it off of Amazon.

Yeah it’s awesome to hear about her she was definitely a pioneer a trailblazer for women in competitive sports in general just competitive sports not even combat sports.

I feel like a lot of people got more respect for women’s sports after seeing a star like that just put on and and be like strong.

She made history by becoming the first woman to hold both the UFC championship and the WWE women’s championship.

Wait she had I mean she was two different sports championship?

Yeah remember in her in the UFC she became the bantamweight champion and then after she lost that championship then she joined WWE.

Yeah but not at the same time.

Not at the same time but she’s held both titles.

No one’s ever done that before?

No no woman in UFC history has ever held a UFC title and then later on a WWE women’s title.

That’s cool yeah yeah she’s like multi-versed multi-talented multifaceted she’s definitely a star it just sucks that she got like negative criticism for so long like why can’t people respect the fact like of what she did at the time.

The UFC was not what it is now and there’s definitely way more competition but I mean there’s people back then that like when you’re the first to do something you’re not necessarily the best because it takes time for people to like really hone in on a skill.

Yeah she was definitely like a trailblazer in her own right so she definitely deserves her kudos and her respect.

Alright awesome well thank you for bringing that book what was the title again?

Our Fight by Ronda Rousey.

Alright that was Our Fight by Ronda Rousey and do you have any books that you’re reading right now that you might bring up next time?

The next book that I’m gonna be doing a review on it is a Star Wars novel called Ahsoka which basically tells the story of Ahsoka Tano one of the most beloved characters in the Star Wars universe.

It tells the story of what happened to Ahsoka after the Clone Wars ended and how she went into hiding when the Empire rose to power.

Nice so for Star Wars fans who want to tune in and hear about Ahsoka what day do you think you you think you might finish this book up like next week or a week after?

Probably next week or in two weeks.

Alright so keep an eye out either next week two weeks we’ll see if we can review that book.

I’m trying to find events going on here on campus do you know any events that are going they’re coming up this month for Hispanic Heritage Month?

Oh there are there are a lot of events going on but I don’t I don’t remember exactly.

I see a farmers market happening at the Student Union Runner Park but that’s not until October.

Well I guess that’ll be it for today’s episode and we will get back to you next week with another Runner Archive, another book review, hopefully we have an interview lined up for you.

I may have the editor-in-chief of the Runner the Runner newspaper come on and talk about the 50th anniversary and talk about things that we’re doing here for the magazine Converge as well as for the newspaper The Runner and she could give us more details about what The Runner is and inform you guys on stuff that she’s writing about.

She’s writing a lot of interesting articles that I think should be showcased and talked about and that’ll be next week and I will see you guys there.

Take care, Runners.

This has been your host Jake Cortez and I am your co-host Marina Gonzalez.

Have a good week. you you you