Current SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey has come in for plenty of criticism during her time in WWE, and a fellow Superstar has now stood up in her defence.
Prior to moving in to the world of professional wrestling, ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey was a top competitor in UFC as well as winning an Olympic bronze medal for Judo.
In an initial UFC run which saw 12 wins and only being taken past the first round once, Rousey would eventually come unstuck against Holly Holm in November 2015. A further loss to Amanda Nunes upon her return just over a year later handed Rousey her second defeat.
Since heading to WWE, Ronda Rousey has had plenty of detractors. However, fellow Four Horsewomen member Shayna Baszler has come to the defence of her friend, explaining why the comments bother her so much.
Here’s the thing, I know Ronda enough to know that she does not spend her time on social media. Anytime she comments is because someone has said, ‘Hey, Ronda, you should comment on this,’ which isn’t often because she’ll still be like, ‘Why? Who cares?’ I get frustrated when it’s a little more selfish than that, I get frustrated if I ever were to speak out. If someone were to say something like, ‘Name the top three women’s fighters of all time.’ If I put Ronda in that list, immediately, they’re like, ‘Nope, she got exposed.’
Even now, it’s bothering me in a hypothetical. Just because she lost and you didn’t like her personality, you’re letting it cloud the fact that she changed women’s fighting. There would not be women in the UFC, at least not for a while, if it wasn’t for her.
To deny that she did great things, to discredit her just because she had a loss and you didn’t like her personality, I feel like if she had lost and then came on a podcast and been like, ‘I lost,’ and been super humble and not Ronda, not herself, people would say she’s the greatest ever, but because she lost and took it to heart and hated it, people hate her, so they have to discredit everything about it.
That’s annoying to me. I can say that I might not enjoy that Amanda Nunes beat Ronda and talked smack about her after, but I can say that Amanda Nunes is one of the best women’s fighters of all time. I can do that. It bothers me that regular fans can’t do that.
With thanks to Fightful for the transcription.
