Why WWE-bound Ronda Rousey will be a perfect fit for professional wrestling
It appears UFC star Ronda Rousey is on the verge of a switch from the legitimate sport of mixed martial arts to the staged realm of professional wrestling. Hopefully she completes the career move, because it’s ideal for everyone involved.
Ronda is a legitimate household name thanks to her dominance of the UFC’s early days of featuring female fighters, combined with company head honcho Dana White’s promotional muscle and nous.
If she were to continue fighting, however, it’s almost inevitable her reputation would only suffer.
She hasn’t stepped into the Octagon to compete in almost a year, following her decisive loss to Amanda Nunes in just 48 seconds on December 30 of last year. That and her defeat to Holly Holm the previous year ended a 12-fight unbeaten start to life in MMA and left her with a 12-2 record. It also stripped away the invincible aura that made her such a box office draw in the first place.
These days, women’s MMA has passed her by. The level of competition exceeds what Rousey brings to the table. But there’s no denying the role she played in getting so many eyes on it in the first place. And her star power and marketability can certainly make her money away from the cage, as evidenced by her TV and movie roles.
Pro wrestling, of course, provides a similar outlet to traditional screen work with the extra added boost of playing into her physical reputation and ability to handle the demands of the training. And, as it turns out, wrestling is in many ways something she was destined to do at some stage or another.
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Her ‘Rowdy’ Ronda nickname was inspired by late wrestling legend Roddy Piper. Before his death in 2015, Piper gave Rousey his blessing to take the nickname to the Octagon. The lifelong fan used some of the over-the-top characteristics of the squared circle realm to help her gain such a huge following and break the million-buys barrier on three occasions in UFC.
Her arrogance and intimidation at times grated on diehard fight fans, to the point that many cheered her painful defeats to Holm and Nunes. But that is what ‘heels’ – the term used for antagonists/villains in wrestling – do better than anyone else.
Boxers like Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather – also both fans of sports entertainment – took inspiration from the likes of Gorgeous George and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson when making their on-camera personas larger-than-life and compelling people to pay good money to see them receive comeuppance. Both of those legitimate fighters also stepped into a WWE ring at a Wrestlemania event at one point, something Rousey seems destined to do this coming April in New Orleans.
It is there that many speculate Rousey will appear alongside her three friends in a quartet who call themselves ‘The Four Horsewomen’ – a play on the infamous 1980s group The Four Horsemen, led by all-time great ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair – to oppose four of the women who have helped pro wrestling follow in the footsteps of MMA and make its female equivalent a respectable and marketable brand in its own right after years of being portrayed as mere eye candy.
Irony
There’s a certain irony to such a bout, if it happens on the biggest wrestling night of the year. Heading up the WWE’s ‘Horsewomen’ would be Charlotte Flair, daughter of Ric. But the MMA ‘invaders’, as they would be portrayed, are hardly fish out of water.
One of the group, Shayna Baszler, competed in WWE’s ‘Mae Young Classic’, a women’s tournament that helped continue this movement and introduce a host of new talent to the audience in the process. Another, Marina Shafir, is engaged to WWE competitor Roderick Strong and has already gained some experience on camera in storylines featuring Strong challenging Bobby Roode for a major championship. Jessamyn Duke meanwhile, is already proficient at rustling up a following (and revenue) as an avid gamer and streamer.
Rousey stepped into the ring at Wrestlemania two years ago in a segment alongside The Rock, and alongside her crew to cheer on Baszler in the MYC tournament finals on WWE TV. It was there that a confrontation between the wrestling ‘Horsewomen’ and the MMA ‘horsewomen’ had fans talking about a potential show-stealer at the big event.
With four months to go, nothing is certain just yet. But it seems like a pretty safe bet at this stage – not to mention something that just feels so natural for Rousey as the next step in her career.
