Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey made her pro wrestling debut for WWE a few weeks ago at Wrestlemania 34 to rave reviews.
Well, from almost everyone.
Indeed, “Rowdy” teamed up with Kurt Angle to take on HHH and Stephanie McMahon in a tag team match that stole the show in New Orleans, Louisiana for many. And now, one of the most well-known names in pro wrestling and WWE history, Jim Ross, is giving his take.
For Ross, who has been in the business for over four decades and was longtime play-by-play man for WWE, Ronda’s pro wrestling debut not only met expectations, but shattered them as he described it as the “most impactul debut ever.”
He broke it down to MMA Junkie:
“I thought that Ronda’s debut was the most impactful pro wrestling debut that I have seen in my 40-plus year career. If you look at her skill set, experience-wise, from this genre in pro wrestling, it was almost non-existent. But she had so much pressure on her. The hype was amazing. The expectations were mixed. Some die-hard wrestling fans don’t even like her being there, which is absolutely insane. They are [sic] and goofy, no doubt about that. So, I was absolutely blown away by what she did and how she executed. She looked like an athlete; we knew she is an athlete. She’s a winner. Now look, some say, well, she lost her last two fights. Kiss my ass. How’s that? C’mon. She won a lot of fights, guys. You know what I mean? She’s a winner. She goes to the Olympics and medals. She’s a winner. So I knew that she was not going to drop the ball. It’s WrestleMania, guys. If you’re an MMA fan, then you say, ‘Well, what does it matter? It’s still pro wrestling.’ There was almost 80,000 people there. … She had so much pressure at this massive event, it would’ve been very easy for her to slip the bit and not have a great outing. If she continues to train as diligently and as ferociously as she has been,” Ross said, “the sky’s the limit for her. She can be really, really good.”
Since her official debut, Rousey has made regular appearances on Monday Night Raw and seems to be be finding her stride as far as her whole wrestling persona goes. With her first official match out of the way, you can expect for Rousey to only improve on what was an impressive start.
And while her return to mixed martial arts (MMA) is unlikely, you can still the the former face of women’s MMA on the big screen in Mark Wahlberg’s upcoming “Mile 22” film set for release on Aug. 3, 2018.