Ronda Rousey has been a member of WWE on and off since late 2017, when it was reported that she signed with the promotion after becoming a fixture of shows from the crowd. Though she didn't make her official debut until WrestleMania 34, working a mixed tag match with Kurt Angle against Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Stephanie McMahon, when Rousey got in the ring, folks generally liked what she brought to the table both from an in-ring perspective and in terms of external eyes tuning in to the promotion's program. She quickly started hitting the in-ring scene to better her craft, wrestling four house shows before her match against Nia Jax at Money in the Bank 2018, and by WWE SummerSlam 2018, Rousey was the champ after dominating Alexa Bliss in a short but sweet squash.
After watching her championship run go on for 231 days, then a record for the RAW Women's Championship, Rousey went away until January of 2022 when, after an absence likely extended due to COVID-19, she returned at the Royal Rumble and after winning the whole darn thing, secured a match at WrestleMania against Charlotte Flair. While Rousey didn't win said match, she did win the war, at Backlash 2022, Rousey defeated Flair and put her on the shelf until this very day.
Though Rousey wouldn't remain champion indefinitely, as she was successfully cashed in on by Liv Morgan at Money in the Bank, she still wrestled a number of matches and worked her way back into the title picture at Extreme Rules, where she unseated Morgan in front of a packed Wells Fargo Center crowd. Rousey was on top, her fans were very excited to see the MMA legend back on television consistently, and yet, more so than in her first run, the tides started to turn on the only member of the WWE Universe to appear in Furious 7.
Why? Because her in-ring work has been… underwhelming, to say the least.
From her infamous missed DDT with Shotzi at Survivor Series – an oopsy that will forever live on in BotchaManias for years to come – to her strange promos/mannerisms like ‘hey Shotzi, clean up on aisle green,' to her seeming unwillingness to properly sell for her opponent, some fans are getting sick of seeing Rousey as a fixture of WWE programming, especially if she isn't willing to put in the work to get better. One of those fans who has used his platform to criticize Rousey's efforts – and effort, period – is Freddie Prinze Jr., the ex-WWE writer/actor who took to his podcast to shoot on the current SmackDown Women's Champion.
Freddie Prinze Jr. has harsh words for Ronda Rousey's efforts in WWE.
Speaking to his audience on the Wrestling with Freddie podcast, Prinze Jr. discussed the Rousey-Shotzi match at Survivor Series and didn't exactly give it a ringing endorsement.
“Ronda Rousey versus Shotzi. This was the single worst match I have seen in I don’t know how long and it was not Shotzi Blackheart’s fault,” Shotzi said h/t 411 Mania and Wrestling Inc. “Shotzi did her thing in this … [Shotzi] carried Ronda through this whole match. She did everything a wrestler could do to make the other wrestler look good. But, it takes two to tango … Ronda is regressing, she is not progressing. Her work is not getting better. It’s getting worse. She blew a DDT that should have been the spot of the freaking night.”
While some will argue with the assertion that Shotzi's attempted apron DDT could have been the “spot of the freaking night,” as there were two WarGames matches and a pretty darn good bout between Finn Balor and A.J. Styles on the show as well, the successful execution of that particular move is worth the risk in exchange for the reward of a brutal looking move. So what gives? Why is Rousey having so many issues in the WWE after such an interesting debut? Prinze has a theory.
“[Ronda’s] either not taking time to work with people … or, she can’t do it,” Prinze said. “If it’s the latter, which means she can’t do it, then why is she there? And I don’t think it’s that. She’s obviously athletic … It was legit unwatchable.”
Is Prinze correct? Is Rousey's effort the issue with why she just can't seem to commit matches to memory for the right reasons? Or could she benefit from working with more experienced in-ring performers instead of green – no pun intended – performers like Shotzi? Only time will tell but needless to say, if Rousey's run is going to end up lasting another six-or-so months until WrestleMania 39 in Hollywood, which it probably should, WWE would be wise to address the situation moving forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srEhcnl-Xjs
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