Lots of pro wrestling fans were curious about how Ronda Rousey would fare when she finally made her WWE debut. It’s safe to say that her performance at WrestleMania 34 left no doubt that Rousey is a big deal, and is absolutely capable of hanging with WWE main event players. Her debut match earned rave reviews from both the wrestling and MMA worlds, and now we’re living in Ronda’s world.
Rousey’s appearance at the Raw After WrestleMania helped to further cement her as a top babyface star in the company, and if rumors are to be believed, she might very well be set to main event next year’s WrestleMania against Charlotte Flair.
Now you can add one more very big name to the list of Rousey-in-WWE admirers: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
On the latest episode of Austin’s podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer and pop culture icon evaluated her WrestleMania performance and believes she’s the real deal. (Transcript via Wrestling Inc.)
“When she came out smiling, she looked like a million bucks. I liked the plaid skirt and she came out, she had her gear on, and then it was time. She got her game face on at the point, but I know where that came from. I’ll guarantee you that was straight out of the old man. ‘Go out there and smile’ because we know she’s a badass. We know she [has] got that mean mug face when it’s time to go out there and do business. And there were plenty of opportunities, and that did happen during the course of the match, but it felt a little weird to me, too, but, I think that he wanted her to smile just to be accessible, maybe to calm the nerves or maybe she’s more free when she’s focused, that laser-focus that she has. But I didn’t expect her to smile. But it was her first big performance in front of 78,000 people. Some people were knocking her on it. I could go either way on it, but I do know that when the bell rang, I was watching her body language and hang onto that tag rope.
“Obviously, they put a lot of time into this, she’s obviously a very talented person, and you had three hands in there with Kurt, Steph, and Triple H being able to go out there and help, along with the referee. So all of the pieces were set in place for this thing to be, and this thing was built to make all of them shine, but specifically Ronda and help get her over. And yeah, this one, I thought they knocked a grand slam, the bases were loaded, and they knocked it out of the park. And so, we’ll see what happens in the future when she starts moving into single’s endeavors, tag team endeavors. Yeah, this was great and they pulled it off. So she still has work to do, but as far as her performance goes, I give her an A+. And I give the match an A+ because that’s how entertained I was by it.”
A lot of fans gave the match an A-plus of their own, and people are already eagerly looking forward to seeing what she will do in her next bout. But it certainly has to feel good to Rousey to get that SCSA seal of approval.
