The 3rd Annual Penny For Your Thoughts 10 Day Wrestlemania Countdown! Day 9; The Lousey Business Choice Steph Made

Columns, Top Story

Well you folks who know me and regularly read my posts don’t come here to see me plant flowers and sing to unicorns, so let me be blunt right off the bat; Rhonda Rousey is a goddamned Trash fire and I don’t like her being IN the WWE at all, much less being pushed as a main event focus because she and Steph are pals. There’s a reason I call her Rhonda Lousey.

First of all, Rhonda is a TERF. To those not in the know, a TERF, (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist), is a woman who claims to be a feminist but actively fights against any laws that would afford equality and safety to trans women. They are some of the vilest, most aggressive foul mean spirited people you’ll ever meet. And Rhonda is on record bashing trans women, being a generally ignorant and unpleasant person when talking about trans women, especially when targeting my friend Fallon Fox.

Second, Rhonda is firmly on the side of Rape Culture, having gone on record to say that rape survivors who were drunk or dressed “slutty” are responsible for their own rapes. She victim blames women who have endured rape and tells them it’s their own fault.

Third, she’s on record mocking people have tried to commit or succeeded in committing suicide. She mocks them as weak, dismisses their mental illnesses as a lame excuse. All in all, she’s just a thoroughly icky human being. Not that Steph would care about any of that because it’s a safe bet Steph feels the same way. And Steph is Rhonda’s friend, so that overrides anything else.

But even as a company with a (kind of laughable) anti-bullying campaign, the WWE frequently showcases bullies in contradiction to that, so we can safely assume NO ONE in the company cares one whit about any of these factors. So let’s look at why hiring Rhonda is a mistake from a purely wrestling/business standpoint. Let’s set aside all the reasons Lousey is a horrible person in real life and examine all the wrestling related flaws that are shining a bad light on the decision to hire her.

First of all, the woman absolutely CANNOT cut a promo to save her bloody life. Paige was dancing absolute circles around her Monday. Any “I’m a former UFC badass” mystique she brought to the table went IMMEDIATELY out the window Monday. The moment she opened her mouth to try to talk back to Paige she sounded awkward and weak. There was NO confidence. She sounded like she was reading off of cue cards on 2 hours sleep. Some people in the audience audibly laughed at her after this. She spoke and in an instant destroyed her ability to intimidate.

And then there was her tossing around of Absolution. It looked careless and sloppy. Sonya could have been legit injured by the way Mandy landed on her. Rhonda has been training with Kurt Angle but she’s clearly not polished yet. There is a very real possibility she could hurt someone. That makes her a liability in the ring.

Thirdly, she’s already proven she has no actual respect for the business. I know we’re long past the days of strictly enforced kayfabe, but it’s one thing to wink and smile at the audience like you know they know it’s all a show. It’s another thing entirely to go on Ellen and outright tell everyone none of it is real and you’re basically just going to be play-acting at Wrestlemania. She outright TOLD the audience “Hey, why bother spending money to watch me wrestle? None of it is real, you shouldn’t even find it entertaining!” She completely undercut the match at wrestlemania and told the fans there’s no reason to get emotionally invested in her.

So taking ALL of that into consideration, even if you ignore what a bullying bigot she is in real life, from a purely wrestling standpoint, this has been a very bad idea on WWE’s part, and Rhonda is destroying all the interest the audience had in seeing her in the ring. If she’s on Raw again come Monday and is this embarassingly bad to watch again, a lot of fans are going to decide her match at Mania is the Bathroom Break match. I already know it’s going to be mine.

A couple of other things that bother me include WWE not seeming to much care about the rumours of their full time women being upset about Rhonda stealing their thunder. Also I’m deeply disappointed in Roddy Piper’s son Colton for giving her Roddy’s jacket and approving of her using Piper font and calling herself Rowdy. I KNEW Roddy, and he was a staunch supporter of LTBGQ people and against bullying. Had he lived to see the person Rhonda has become I very much doubt he would still be supporting her. Hell he’d be chewing a hole in her ear over the shit she’s said. It is very much an insult to Roddy’s memory for her to wear his jacket and carry his monicker. And Joan Jett? Really Joan, you should be ashamed of yourself for letting Rhonda use your song.

Anyway, so that’s why Rousey is Lousey for the WWE and for everyone.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about this year’s……. interesting choices for the Hall of Fame.

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.