SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Why are we letting her do this to us? Why are we allowing her to insult us? Why are we allowing Ronda Rousey to do what she is doing? We are all complicit in this because we allow her to constantly insult us.
Quick confession: I’m not a Becky Lynch fan. I find the Lynch gimmick to be a little too derivative for my taste. If you like Lynch, more power to you, but I don’t and I want to get that out there because I’m not writing this from a “Pro Becky/Anti Ronda” perspective.
My perspective is simple: Ronda Rousey is bad for professional wrestling because she doesn’t respect it and she does not respect what it stands for. Ronda Rousey is in business for herself and only herself. This is worse than anything Vince McMahon and Roman Reigns could put together, yet I don’t hear the outrage.
It’s fascinating to think of why. Is she “cooler” than Reigns because she had the UFC Title? Is she more “real” than Reigns? I don’t know the exact reason, but I do know that she comes on television, looks at the crowd, and basically says that we all know that she could destroy Becky Lynch. She does not say this in a confident, standard pro wrestler way. If she did so, I would not write this. She says these words in a, “I’m clearly capable of beating her up because I was in UFC” way. Why is this so significant? Because it allows her to break the script in a way that we would NEVER allow another wrestler to do.
We are allowing Rousey to go out and insult the sport because she is envious, jealous, and frustrated with how the crowd is reacting to her. And Rousey has not stopped. Now, Rousey is going out and tweeting about how fake Lynch’s arm bar looks.
May I ask a simple question? How many female wrestlers have tapped out to that arm bar? How many young wrestling fans have mimicked that arm bar because of their love for Becky Lynch? These are important questions to ask because Rousey is not only undermining Becky Lynch, she is undermining the sport and we should not accept that as wrestling fans. We should not cheer or even boo someone like Rousey.
Could you imagine Mike Tyson going on television and making fun of Steve Austin’s signature move, the Stone Cold Stunner? Or his elbow drop from the second rope? Could you imagine how that would have changed the trajectory of Austin’s career? I think it would have changed it drastically because I remember going to school after that famous Raw and talking to my friends about the major confrontation between Austin and Tyson. I remember some of my friends saying Austin would beat Tyson, while others said Tyson would win.
Rousey is not a real fan of wrestling. Rousey is not Tyson. Rhonda Rousey’s ego will not allow her to truly be a professional wrestler. Rousey is no professional; she is delusional, spoiled, and perhaps even a narcissist.
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Weird that you compare her to Reigns and not Lesnar. Also, sorry about the lack of outrage, but Rousey/Lynch/Flair is the best thing going on WWE, and it’s not even close.
Won’t it be great when Ronnie taps out to that same fake looking armbar? I think it will be and I won’t even come back on here to say I told you so.
First of all Ronda are bar looks worse than Becky’s. Even though she knows how to put it on correctly. Their feud is the best in wwe right now so let it be
Totally ridiculous. Ronda Rousey is GREAT for pro wrestling. She’s taken to it faster than anyone I can think of aside from Kurt Angle. As someone who was at the top of women’s MMA for years, it makes perfect sense for her to be claiming to be the only woman wrestler in WWE with any legitimate skills. That doesn’t destroy Becky Lynch. It gives her an opponent. No opponents, no fun in watching. Personally, I think the Ronda-Becky-Charlotte dynamic is about the best thing going in WWE at the moment and I think all 3 are doing great work.
You only say that because you’re told she took to it faster. We’re your there? Does she get how to or a match together. You think she gets how to get her shine or any other match psychology of someone isn’t calling the match for her? She’s good way better than I could ever even dream but I’m tired if reading that.
Shayna bazler is way better.
Bring in the cyborg to knock her son a peg.
I think it’s all a work this whole angle but she’s not the end all be all and they why I’m replying
Agree 100%. Rousey shit the bed with WWE, and Lynch the “Stone Cold Man” is just a joke at this point. WWE fans are baffling.
Very good column.
I have never liked Rousey since the first day she stepped in a WWE Ring. I will not watch one single episode of Total Divas with her on it. Vince is doing everything in his power to keep fans from booing her but many fans do not like her. Her entry music is so bad I have to mute the sound. And she insults Roddy Piper every time she comes out in his shirt. All she has done is bury many of the female wrestlers.
She can’t wrestle…(A)
She can’t act…(B)
And I swear she’s a bit f’d in the head… her emotions, driven by poor crowd response, result in her trying to hurt her opponents in the ring. Like she cannot control herself… This is WWE (Vince, Steph, Triple H etc.) taking advantage of someone with some serious emotional issues if ypu ask me.You see the legit fear in her opponents eyes match afyer match, and it’s not a work. It’s as if they know that at any given moment she could snap and take it out on them. She throws people around, constantly landing them akwardly on their hips and shoulders without any remorse. There is NO DOUBT in my mind that the other women in WWE will be happy when she’s gone.
We accept Brock Lesnar. He is very in business for himself. So how can we now come down on Rousey.
I’m no fan of Lesnar, but Lesnar has at least put a few people over. Rousey? Not so much. Look how she just completely deflated the Riott Squad. For what? Nothing. I get she’s not losing on the road to ‘Mania, but she doesn’t need to be booked to beat people in 90 seconds.
That’s the difference.
Waaaaah!
Oh! I can guess who that is! Rousey, after she lost, BOTH times, am I right?
Spot on, Shukri.
I detest Ronda Rousey, and the way other talented women on the roster have been treated so she can be pushed to the top. I’ve never liked her, dating back to her UFC days. She made a reputation in a game, and at a time, where many women were learning the sport; and when she got hit in the mouth, she took her ball and went home.
For all the talk of her being the baddest, she’s got razor thin skin. She wants to act like a villain, but can’t handle the jeers. I’m now convinced the entire reason Charlotte was added to Mania was so that people “like” Ronda, and she doesn’t have to take a clean loss. It’s a joke, the same way it’s a joke the way she talks down to women who are supposed to be her peers inside the WWE Universe.
AMEN. She is only out for herself and zero respect or love for anything else.
Cry me a river. Rousey is being presented EXACTLY like Brock Lesnar has been presented since he returned to WWE, post-UFC. That is, like a legitimately bad motherf***er, and, like it or not, both of them are just that.
The reason they’re presented that way, on top of it being the truth, is so that whoever finally DOES beat either of them, cleanly in the center of a WWE ring, will look like even more of a bad motherf***er for having done so.
Shut up for a minute, quit crying online long enough to actually WATCH the show like a fan, instead of some sort of unpaid critic… and, who knows? You might just enjoy the story a little bit.
Big difference lesnar goes back to ufc he can hang with the best, rousey goes back shes getting rekt
I fail to see any difference between Rousey/Lynch’s Twitter exchange and the Revival having “No Flips, Just Fists” in their entrance graphic. Essentially, they’re saying that “flippy shit” isn’t as effective as punching someone in the face, which pretty much casts aspersions on most wrestling moves.
Ronda is a natural athlete, a skilled mixed martial artist and real sports combatant. The moment they took her into WWE based on her MMA credentials, WWE essentially peeled back the kayfabe layer of the business by touting how much tougher Ronda is than the rest of the roster. That was the start of a slippery slope, ending where we are now where one made up bad-ass (Lynch) is in a feud with one legitimate bad-ass (Rousey). No one escapes unscathed at the end. It’s the reason why I think WWE should never have taken Lesnar back after his initial time in UFC.
When your business is founded on the principle that the performers are “really fighting”, don’t bring in someone from another sport that everyone knows could legitimately destroy the entire roster. It undermines the ability of fans to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the product. To blame this on Rousey is wrong; she signed with WWE but WWE should have had the respect to protect the business from this scrutiny rather than just wanting to cash in on her name recognition.
Amen, brother. How Vince McMahon gets to a place where he allows former UFC competitors to cite his own WWE Superstars as phony and fake on his own television air-time just boggles me. Old-school promoters like Bill Watts always made damned sure viewers knew how tough his wrestlers were and would never allow an angle like this to see the light of day. No matter how much money it draws at WrestleMania, it’s bad for business. The author hits the nail on the head with his Austin-Tyson comparison. The angle that closed Raw was the equivalent of Tyson knocking Austin out with one punch just weeks before WrestleMania XIV. I’ll never understand McMahon’s willingness to put UFC cast offs over his own roster.
Typical that the E likes wrestlers nowadays who can give two shits about the promotion they work for and only themselves. I am looking at you Crock and Ronda. Both titles are rather meaningless and the “Universal” even more because Crock shows up once a year.
Ronda is not necessarily an embarrassment to wrestling but she is extremely overrated and has always believed her own hype. Tessa Blanchard would run circles around her and embarrass her.
But what do I know? They are making money hand over fist and people continue to watch this garbage so why they should care about it?