After a short commercial break, Steve and Ronda reappeared on the screen. Steve had just been counted down by the producer, and was keen to get right back to the conversation. In his opinion, the interview had gone well so far. Unlike some guests, Ronda didn't need much prodding for answers, which made the process a lot easier.

"Welcome back to the Stone Cold Podcast Live," he smiled into the camera. "Now, Ronda, before that short break, we were about to get into how you made your return at Wrestlemania Thirty One. You actually made the count which ended the main event, with Seth Rollins winning the title after cashing in his Money in the Bank contract and pinning Roman Reigns. When did you find out about that was going to happen? I know those kind of decisions can be made quite late at times."

"My involvement was added quite late," Ronda began, shifting on her chair to get comfortable for the next part of the show. "I think it was the Thursday afternoon that Hunter called me and told me. I was really hyped about it, as I'm sure you can imagine. As for Seth cashing in, that was decided quite a way in advance. Roman had won the Rumble, but the fans had jumped all over it. I think they were booing the creative rather than actually booing Roman. I think they thought WWE was forcing him on them too quickly or something. One of the best things about WWE, in my opinion, is that the fans always get to make their opinions known. It did hurt Roman though, and it was that which actually helped us to become close friends. We're still close now actually, we chat often on the phone. Anyway, you asked about Wrestlemania. When Seth went out there with the briefcase, the crowd was insane. I'd never heard anything like it in my life, not in person. Then I had to run out there to referee the end of the match, and the fans went wild for me too. I don't need to tell you, Steve, but there's no other feeling quite like hearing an arena full of people go wild for you like that. The way that ending to the main event brought Wrestlemania to a close worked really well, and even though Seth was still supposed to be a heel, everyone seemed to love his cash in."

Steve nodded his agreement as he remembered the scenes that Ronda was describing. "Did you know at that point that you would be debuting on Raw the next night? I assume you did?"

"Yeah, I knew," Ronda confirmed, smiling broadly. "And I knew that they were going to give me the Divas title, too, which was a huge surprise and a huge honour. I got to wrestle my first match against my friend Nikki Bella, and she was great about putting me over. It was actually Nikki who suggested that I win quickly against her. Hunter wanted it to go for a few minutes, so that people would get to see what I could do, but Nikki said that it might be better if I beat her quick. She wanted me to make the biggest impact possible with my debut, and I owe her a lot for that. It worked out great, and I never looked back from there."

"It is kind of surprising," Steve said, taking the opportunity to speak as Ronda sipped from her glass of water. "Considering how fast you got pushed, and then having the title put on you right away as well, I'd imagine the other women would be pissed off about it."

"Oh, some of them were," Ronda said, laughing. "I mean, I guess they had a point about me not going through NXT or whatever, but that was hardly my fault. I don't give a fuck what people say about me anyway. I was there to do a job, and I did it."

"You sure did," Steve grinned. "They had Nikki come out there and start talking about how she'd beaten everyone on the roster or something, right?"

"Right," Ronda nodded.

"Then your music hit, Seth's music, because everyone knew you guys were together by that point, and the place went fucking crazy. You walked out on the stage, and I remember thinking that WWE had found someone special. Not many people can generate that kind of reaction, let alone just by walking out onto the stage."

"Thanks, Steve," Ronda smiled, looking a little embarrassed. "That means a lot coming from you. That whole segment was only a few minutes long, but I'll never forget it. The Raw after Wrestlemania always has a predominantly British, and they were all going crazy for me. It gave me goosebumps. Actually, it was hard not to smile, which was something I definitely couldn't do, needing to stay in character."

"It was almost straight away that WWE started putting Ronda Rousey merch out," Steve said, moving on to the next topic. "I'm told you had a friend of yours design your first shirt?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly in uncertainty.

Ronda nodded. "Yeah, that's right. It had an awesome leopardess design on the front. Maggie, my friend, designed that shirt for me. I met Maggie in a restaurant one night, not long after I signed with WWE. She was a big fan of WWE, and she was blown away to get to meet Seth, Roman and Dean. She had some really tough times earlier in her life, and the courage that she showed in dealing with them was, and is, a huge inspiration to me. Actually, Maggie designed these wristbands, too. She's an amazing artist and designer. She's started to make good money from her design work. You can find a link to her website on the front page of mine, go check it out."

"Cheap plug," Steve laughed.

"Cheap and shameless," Ronda admitted, also laughing. "Maggie's awesome, though. We've been house sharing for a couple months now, actually. She's such good fun to be around. We have some fucking great laughs."

"I'm sure it surprises a lot of people to know that you house share with someone who used to be a fan of yours. I mean, you're one of the most recognisable women on the planet right now, and you've just finished filming a movie, yet until quite recently you still lived in a rented room in a house that you shared with two guys, right?"

Ronda shrugged. "I guess it might surprise people, but it shouldn't. I'm not better than other people, Steve. I fucking hate that kind of bullshit. I'm Ronda Rousey. I'm the same person I was just a few years ago when I was living in my car. Having money is nice, but it doesn't define me, and I try not to let it change my lifestyle. I only moved to this new house for security reasons, and I asked Maggie to move in with me because I didn't want to live by myself."

The sceptic in Steve wanted to doubt what Ronda had said, but there was nothing in her demeanour to suggest that she was not being honest. "That's very admirable, Ronda. A lot of people couldn't stay as well grounded as that, especially with how quickly your life has changed."

"I don't wear this thing for a stupid gimmick," Ronda said, bristling a little as she held up her right wrist which wore the wristband. She appeared to have misunderstood Steve slightly, wrongly thinking that there was an element of sarcasm in his comment. "I'm where I am now in life because people have supported me, and I don't forget that, okay? Not ever. Yes, I've busted my own ass to get to where I am, but I still owe my success to firstly WWE's fans, and now to a whole lot more people as well."

"I get what you're saying," Steve said calmly, hoping to also calm Ronda down and get back on track. The next part of the interview was going to be tough enough as it was, without Ronda being pissed off. "So you won the Divas title the night after Wrestlemania, and the fans went wild for it. You've talked about how great you felt that night, but then things changed. It was that night that Daniel Bryan was killed."

"Yeah," Ronda said, noticeably speaking more quietly than she had a moment before. "That was, I don't know, man."

"You spoke to Gavin Russell, the guy who shot Daniel, didn't you?" Steve nudged gently.

"Yeah," Ronda confirmed, looking down at the table rather than meeting Steve's eyes. "I looked him right in the eye. He was as close to me as you are to me now. He was wearing a WWE T-shirt, the same as a lot of the backstage crew. I thought that's who he was, just a crew member. He asked me where Daniel's locker room was, and I told him. I felt so fucking guilty about that afterwards, but Brie was so kind to me. She made me believe that she didn't blame me at all for what happened, and neither would Daniel. That little bastard would have seen Daniel's name on the locker room door if hadn't been there, so nothing would have been any different. Even so, I think about that night a lot. I didn't get the chance to know Daniel well, but seeing how much it upset everyone else told me how nice a guy he was, and how much everyone loved him."

"Daniel really was one hell of a guy," Steve agreed, and then left a slight pause. He knew that although the subject matter was unpleasant, he had to continue on. "You spoke to Russell in the hallway, what happened next?"

Ronda continued to look down at the table, and now started to pick at one of her finger nails. "I went into Nikki and Brie's locker room. I'd hit Nikki square in the mouth with my clothesline during the match, and she'd got one hell of a fat lip coming up. I went in to check on her, and to apologise. Nikki was fine. We chatted for a minute or so and I went to head back to my locker room - mine and Seth's locker room. I think he was wanting to take off. I'd gotten about half way back down the hallway when I heard a gunshot, and then another quickly afterwards. Gunshots were the only thing that sound could have been."

Ronda paused for a moment and swallowed hard before continuing. "I knew what had happened. I don't know how, I just did. I didn't want to walk towards Daniel's locker room, but I found myself doing it anyway. John Cena came in the opposite direction, and he was closer to Daniel's room. John walked into there and I heard him start yelling for help, or whatever. He was yelling. I was still walking down towards the room, but John saw me and walked towards me. He stood in my way so that I couldn't get down there. He didn't want me to see that… what was in that room."

Again Ronda paused, and although she was looking down at the table it was obvious from her voice that she had started to cry. "I remember asking him 'Daniel?' and he shook his head and said 'No.' I knew that Daniel was dead."

Wiping at her eyes, Ronda looked up at Steve. "Can we take a fucking break or something?"

"I think that's a good idea," Steve said, nodding his head to convey the order to the producer.