How to Book Ronda Rousey
This is gonna be fun. I think.
The Royal Rumble happened last Sunday, and despite Shinsuke Nakamura’s unprecedented victory and the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble, Ronda Rousey overshadowed it all by awkwardly standing, smiling, and pointing at a big LED sign high up in the rafters. Rousey won the headlines and brought mainstream relevance to WWE by merely showing up.
Dana White 1. Vince McMahon 0.
Rousey’s WWE career is Vince’s chance to even the score. If you look up and down the WWE roster, it’s filled with former TNA, ROH, and New Japan superstars. The indie guy/gal has been more prevalent than ever and WWE is the New York Yankees buying them all out 10 years past their prime. But even AJ Styles 10 years past his prime is still the best wrestler in the world, so there’s not too much the WWE has to do except let Styles go in the ring and be phenomenal.
WWE is in a comfortable spot with the rising stardom of Braun Strowman, and after establishing an AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura main event (fingers crossed) for Wrestlemania, there’s a lot to be excited for in 2018.
This puts Ronda Rousey in a very precarious position. Not that Rousey needs to worry, she’s going to be countin fat stacks to the bank. No, the WWE has Ronda’s public reputation on their hands. If this goes south, well, I still think it will be very entertaining.
Let’s take stock of the WWE’s Women’s Division. Bear with me here because this is very important as to how Ronda has to fit in with this. I’m going to break down the current roster by good talkers and wrestlers. Defining good as: these ladies are entertaining in the ring or on the mic.
Good wrestlers: Sasha Banks, Paige, Asuka, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Alicia Fox (despite Fox never being on television).
Good talkers: Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, Paige, Alicia Fox.
The WWE and Stephanie McMahon wants their fans to believe that we’re in the midst of a Women’s Revolution, and in some unprecedented fashion for the WWE standards we are, but the women on the roster are still being slighted. Bad scriptwriting has been a staple of WWE television, and as bad as it is for the men, the ladies get it even worse. Need proof? Please name me a memorable ladies promo in 2017.
If written and booked better, Bayley should be on that good talker list. Becky Lynch should be on that list. These ladies have charisma, but there’s not a lot of passion put into the women’s feuds unless it’s for a title.
The WWE is still trying to figure out how to book and write their women’s division to a level that compares with the men. The women don’t get creative segments like Braun Strowman who tears apart everything he sees, or Elias who comes out every week and terribly sings and strums his guitar. Typically, a bunch of women come out and cut a bland one-minute promo, and then we get a 6-woman tag team Teddy match. Playa.
The reasons above are why diehard WWE fans are upset that Ronda got the biggest moment at the 2018 Royal Rumble. Not only is she the biggest star in the company male or female, she’s going to be the center of attention for women’s segments going forward to Wrestlemania.
WWE fans are easy to read, and the creative staff has been paying more attention as of late (or maybe Vince is paying less attention). The general vibe for Rousey’s arrival has already soured for what I’ve listed above, context is important readers.
Rousey is set to arrive on the February 5th episode of Monday Night Raw. I’m expecting a mixed reaction. There will be those in the crowd excited to see her, and the upset fans that already expect Rousey is going to be pushed to the moon. That’s one of the trendy WWE fan things to do. Boo the guy getting a non-organic push. The most recent victim: Jason Jordan. BUT. The WWE was one step ahead of the fans and now Jason Jordan is a fantastic heel.
Will the WWE be one step ahead with Rousey?
Booking Rousey
There is unequivocally no way I can see Ronda Rousey beginning her WWE career as a face. Wrestling fans are very fickle, and there’s an ever-shifting trend that fans have to ride the flavor of the moment (ex. Rusev Day, Walk with Elias). The moment fans get the idea that Rousey is being treated as the premier face, the fans will reject her.
Booking Ronda as a heel is simple. Rousey has been drawing the ire of sports fans since her dominant MMA run began. Segments of the public saw Ronda as arrogant, overrated, and mouthy. Ronda is always going to have a strong contingent of die-hard fans. Women that feel empowered by her, and men that are awed by her beauty and dominance. So there’s some definite tweener potential as Ronda’s career goes on. It is somewhat Brock Lesnar like.
The comparisons will be deafening when Rousey wins her first couple matches. Ronda is the female Brock Lesnar will be a constant narrative. This is why Ronda’s first match needs to be saved until Wrestlemania 34 in April. She is the special attraction that’s going to garner eyes outside of the wrestling world to watch Mania this year. It’s critical that Ronda has a good showing her in her debut.
If WWE can get an 8-minute high quality Ronda Rousey match at Wrestlemania, the media coverage and excitement for Rousey’s wrestling career will be skyrocketed.
All we need now is a Mania worthy build and a Mania worthy wrestler. That means we need a good wrestler and a good talker opposite Ronda. If we glance back to my list, we see our only options are Sasha Banks or Paige. The choice is pretty obvious here.
WWE’s best shot at striking gold with Ronda’s debut is a feud with Sasha Banks. She’s undoubtedly the best wrestler and talker in the Women’s division. She’s crafty on the offense, and she’s easily one of the best sellers in the company. Everyone has their best match with Sasha. Charlotte, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Becky Lynch, etc.
A Sasha Banks vs. Ronda Rousey feud at Mania writes itself. Watch how easy this is.
Rousey’s first and subsequent promos should drive home the fact that she doesn’t care about any of the women’s wrestlers. She doesn’t care how hard they worked, how much time they spent honing their craft, because Ronda is the baddest woman on the planet and she’s come to beat every woman on the roster. The more Rousey talks shit about professional wrestling, the better. It’s easy to get heat from fans when they feel like the art of professional wrestling is being attacked.
Sasha would respond to Rousey’s comments from the perspective of Ronda disrespecting the business of professional wrestling. Ronda shouldn’t be able to come into the WWE and be given everything she wants. She needs to earn the top spot. As the weeks go on though, the feud should focus on the promos cutting deeper and Sasha bringing back more of her patented bossy heel attitude. Sasha’s shots should really dig into Ronda’s losses to Holm and Nunes. Sasha should call Rousey a failed fighter, and that Sasha is going to prove Rousey doesn’t have it anymore.
After Sasha cuts into Rousey’s MMA losses, this is where we have a contract signing that leads into a massive brawl much like Undertaker and Lesnar’s infamous brawl where they attacked each other for a solid 10 minutes. You want a moment before Mania that goes viral.
The match psychology between Rousey and Banks is predicated on who can get the other in their signature submission. Armbar vs. Bank Statement. After some early match back and forth, Banks should catch Rousey in the Bank Statement and before it appears Rousey is to tap, she reverses and counters into an armbar. Sasha taps. Crowd loses its mind. I lose my shit watching from home, Twitter goes nuclear, and life goes on.
Afterwards, Rousey should continue on a tear where she follows through on a plan to beat every notable woman on the roster until she meets Asuka.
Streak vs. Streak.
Now I’ll admit, I’m not an Asuka fan. She’s off-putting to me. But I recognize she’s a good wrestler and has a lot of fan support. You can’t pass up a streak vs. streak opportunity.
Final important Ronda booking tactic I’ll mention. I don’t think she should have a manager. Just let her talk shit. She might not be the most vibrant ‘made for TV’ personality, but she can talk shit. Just as I talked about in my Stone Cold article, we need more great shit talking. Just let Ronda loose WWE. Your viewership numbers will greatly benefit.
Quick Rant
One last note. I’m sure if you follow the WWE, you may have read the rumor mill about what WWE’s plans are for Ronda. I despise the dirt sheets. It’s hard to be genuinely surprised by anything anymore because everyone wants to accurately forecast what is going to happen next. I like guessing. I like fantasy booking. It’s been so boring to know that Roman Reigns is going to beat Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania. There’s been an overarching dread for over a year now with simply knowing that’s the end result of Lesnar’s title reign.
Nakamura winning this year’s Royal Rumble was surprising. Rey Mysterio showing up was surprising. The Hardyz returning at last year’s Mania was surprising. These are great genuine moments. I just want to state the obvious. Spoilers suck.
I hope to be surprised by what WWE does with Ronda Rousey. I think this is gonna be fun.
