Sometimes it seems like not a day goes by without a legendary wrestler of the past shooting his mouth off about some problem they have with today’s wrestling product. For WWE Hall-of-Famer Superstar Billy Graham, that problem is Ronda Rousey. Responding on Facebook to a fan who commented that Ronda’s use of Roddy Piper’s gimmick is “nauseating,” Graham didn’t hold back:
You my brother are dead on my man!!! I find it a total insult and absolutely reveals that she does not have an original thought in her head. Damn, can’t she be an original at anything ? This shows you how shallow she is and by the way, I am a fan of females being in the main event. That is why I put up this photo of Amanda Nunes kicking her ass in 48 seconds. She looked pitiful, a TKO in 48 seconds on Dec. 30th, 2016 by Nunes, a real fighter and Rousey just a jobber.
Graham didn’t stop there, however. He went on at length to address rumors that the original plan for WrestleMania was that Ronda would make Triple H tap out to an armbar, rather than Stephanie McMahon, finally concluding:
Now this is nauseating. I demand that you fans respond to this crap the WWE is trying to lay on you by even thinking about her making HHH tap out, god this makes me sick.
He then finishes the post by offering a link to a promo of his from 1986, and challenging fans to “tell me if anyone in the WWE today can match my short promo.” That last bit I find very telling. At the end of the day, this is a 74-year-old retired performer who would like to stay relevant in 2018, and saying things that will get people like me to write posts like this is a strategy that kind of works (fulling acknowledging my own complicity here).
As for Ronda Rousey, there are many valid reasons to criticize her (I’m no big fan of her myself), but calling her names and being “nauseated” by booking decisions that didn’t even happen, or by an homage that by all accounts had the blessing of Roddy Piper and his family, doesn’t accomplish much that’s productive or helps the business in any way. Whatever you think of Ronda personally, she seems to be giving it her all, leaving some other wrestling legends as well as the MMA world pretty impressed.
