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Without a doubt, you’ve heard the rumours by now that MMA superstar Ronda Rousey is set to make her WWE debut very soon. Some have even proposed that not only will she debut at and win the first-ever women’s Royal Rumble match, but she will also become women’s champion by defeating – of all people – Charlotte.
Many people believe that this is a good idea and will benefit WWE in a major way. After all, Rousey is a household name in the MMA world and is known as one of the toughest women in sports right now. In many respects, she’s the Brock Lesnar of women’s MMA.
And like Brock Lesnar in WWE, Rousey becoming the ace of the women’s division is a bad idea.
There has been this longstanding argument among wrestling pundits that WWE is incapable of creating new stars. Aside from John Cena and Randy Orton, WWE hasn’t had any major stars that hadn’t made a name for themselves elsewhere.
One would need only look at some of the biggest stars of the past decade or so for proof: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and Seth Rollins were all popular stars outside of WWE before coming to Vince’s promotion to wrestle.
Then you have the ‘pure WWE’ guys that have been in the spotlight like John Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Triple H, Roman Reigns and Jinder Mahal. Of this latter group, Cena and Orton are the only wrestlers to have blossomed as certified stars since the beginning of the 21st century.
Triple H is a star of yesteryear who maintains a consistent level of popularity among fans due to both his involvement with NXT and as something of a nostalgia act. Sheamus was one of the most boring and uninspiring world champions during his initial run, and his initial main-event ascent reeked of backstage politics and favouritism.
Roman Reigns, Vince’s pet project, has been one of the biggest sources of controversy for over three years now, and his status as the new face of WWE hasn’t really cast WWE in the most positive of lights.
Finally, the Mahal experiment has largely been viewed as a failure, as Mahal’s sudden WWE Championship win and subsequent title reign didn’t yield the expected returns.
From this picture, you can see that WWE has a problem with whom it casts as the franchise star. Because of this problem, WWE appears to have found a solution by casting Brock Lesnar as the top champion on RAW, much like how he was back in 2014-15.
But similar to the times back then, Lesnar’s lack of regular appearances and even less frequent title defences led many to think that the championship had lost its value, and Lesnar’s infrequent appearances suggested that RAW itself wasn’t really worth his time.
But most importantly, Brock Lesnar being world champion on RAW sends a clear message to fans: that a part-timer who made a name for themselves outside of WWE is better than the regulars on the roster. No matter how hard the regular wrestlers work, they aren’t on the same level of stardom or importance as the ageing wrestlers of yesteryear and other part-timers.
Which brings us to Rousey and the women’s situation in WWE. Over the past two to three years, WWE has been promoting this ‘women’s revolution’ wherever possible. The ultimate goal has been for the overall presentation of women in the company to shift towards a more athleticism-driven philosophy.
One need only look at the growth of new women’s wrestlers on both main rosters as well as the discontinuation of the ‘Divas’ approach as examples of this new mentality in action.
Ultimately, however, the goal for any major storyline in WWE is for it to create new stars, male or female. NXT has proven itself to be a breeding ground for up-and-coming talent, and many stars from that brand have flourished to some extent on the main roster. The men and women that go through the NXT system are meant to be the stars of the future, and it is around them that the main stories should be built.
Ronda Rousey acts like a monkey wrench in this plan. She, like Lesnar, is a star from another sport/profession coming to WWE. While it is still true that she has a legitimate fighting experience and considerable mainstream popularity, it wouldn’t bode well for WWE if they were to make her the star of the division all of a sudden.
If she were to do so, it would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current roster takes a backseat to ‘outsiders’ coming to WWE for a quick shot at fame.
If Ronda Rousey were to debut for WWE and steamroll over everyone else in the company, it would render all of their efforts and attempts to sell themselves as athletes moot. Why would anyone in WWE want to put in any effort into trying to become a top star when WWE can just bring someone in that doesn’t have any experience in the sport and have that person mop the floor with them?
WWE’s audience has come to expect something out of its performers, male or female. Wrestling matches are meant to be dramatic stories told through grappling-based action. Ronda Rousey is a natural fighter that belongs in MMA where it’s an actual shoot fight. There is plenty of historical evidence to prove that an MMA fighter working with wrestlers (that isn’t named Brock Lesnar) in worked pro wrestling matches is a bad idea.
The best example of this would have to be Antonio Inoki’s failed ‘Inokism’ philosophy of the late 1990s and early 2000s. During that period, Inoki brought in MMA fighters to wrestle his top wrestlers and also booked wrestlers in shoot MMA fights. This was done to try and further sell NJPW’s product as the most realistic and natural style of wrestling.
Naturally, the concept bombed so spectacularly that within less than three years, NJPW was in complete shambles to the point that their three biggest stars – Shinya Hashimoto, Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh – all abandoned Inoki because of how their careers were being destroyed by bringing in these outsiders that didn’t know how to wrestle (Chono was the only one to stay in NJPW, but spent very little time actually performing).
It took NJPW almost a decade (as well as a godsend in the form of Hiroshi Tanahashi) to recover and become a strong promotion again. Now, it looks like WWE are copying that mentality of bringing in outsiders with a slightly higher degree of mainstream relevance to perform and beat their own established performers.
This could have deep consequences for WWE, especially since there’s now a growing possibility of wrestlers being more successful, as Cody’s case has proven.
Ronda Rousey being signed by WWE is in itself a good idea. After all, she is popular and would bring some degree of mainstream attention to the company during its most critical time of the year. But to have her come in and walk all over everyone and claim one of the two championships just like that is an awful one.
It would completely undo all of the hard work the current wrestlers have done and would prove once again that WWE has no faith in its current roster and would rather live off of nostalgia pops and part-timers than pull the trigger on a current star.
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