Ronda Rousey has impressed both fans and management since transitioning from the UFC to WWE.
At WrestleMania 34, in her debut match, Rousey and Kurt Angle took on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in what was arguably the best match of the entire show. Getting that kind of praise in just her first match, growing too confident and over-inflating one’s ego could always be a concern.
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That is reportedly not the case with Rousey. In fact, not only has she impressed management and the fans, she’s always impressed the entire locker room.
According to Dave Meltzer on a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio:
“I know this from several different people there. Attitude wise, 100% tremendous. No negativity there. She’s happy she loves doing this. She’s a hard worker. She has absolutely no stuck-up, star issue in this whatsoever. There’s no ego thing there, in fact it’s the opposite. Everyone’s talked about how refreshing it is that she is so humble for as big a star that she is.
vSo she doesn’t come in with the attitude a lot of guys that came in from football and all this came in and walked around like they were real sh*t or what some people will do. All of those things and the fact she’s a great athlete and in her first match she did absolutely tremendous. All that leads me to that, in time, when she has two years under her belt because of her attitude that she probably won’t need to be carried and she’ll probably be pretty damn good.”
Rousey appears to be set-up to capture her first WWE gold in just a few week’s time. WWE surprised nearly everyone when they announced she would challenge Nia Jax at Money In The Bank for the RAW women’s title on June 17 in Chicago.
The match, which was announced at the NBCUniversal upfronts at Radio City, shocked virtually everyone connected to the industry. Rousey has yet to have a singles match on television, and this is a pretty high profile bout for her first time out (though she did wrestle at live events in Europe this week).
It’s also odd from a storyline perspective as Rousey and Jax are both babyface characters. Jax has notably been pushed with an anti-bullying theme, so it’s an odd predicament to put her in here unless she undergoes a quick heel turn in the coming weeks.
According to one industry insider, WWE kind of booked themselves into a corner with the Rousey situation. They didn’t want her to miss another PPV (she didn’t wrestle at Backlash), they didn’t want her in the Money in the Bank ladder match, and they couldn’t have her losing in a qualifying match.
All of that said, there was really nowhere to put her other than up against the champion. Does that she will walk out with the title? We’ll know in just a few weeks.
