It’s going to be a tough task to find a debut more highly anticipated than Ronda Rousey’s first outing inside of the squared circle.
If making the switch from the UFC to the WWE wasn’t enough pressure, Rousey’s first official match will take place at WrestleMania 34 where she teams up with Kurt Angle to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed match challenge.
DEBUT
Understandably, there are going to be more eyes than ever before at this event because Rousey has a mainstream appeal wherever she goes. Plus, working with legends in your first-ever match at the biggest stage possible - of course, everyone is going to want to know how she fares after making an exit from the Octagon.
At the moment, we’ve seen Rousey get slightly physical in the ring by attacking the likes of Stephanie, Dana Brooke and Absolution, but we haven’t yet seen what she’s truly capable of and how much she’s improved or learnt since beginning her training at the WWE Performance Center.
While her in-ring work remains to be seen, the big criticism Rousey is drawing is her work on the microphone. Obviously, not everyone can be incredible on the microphone right off the bat, especially when she’s been thrown into the deep end and probably hasn’t had the time to train and improve like stars do on NXT.
Some claim she looks lost in the ring and needs help - so it comes as no surprise that there have been rumours that WWE could have her work with Paul Heyman. However, now it all seems to make sense why her promos aren’t great, as she revealed to ESPN that her promos are unscripted and she just has a list of bullet points to go off.
UNSCRIPTED
According to Fightful, she said: “I have bullet points. Mostly, they want the meaning of what’s there, not the actual words.
“It’s the same with acting sometimes, like with Pete Berg, he’s an amazing director and realised I am better at speaking than remembering. I know I say something differently if I’m trying to get to a certain point, as opposed to I’m trying to remember what I said earlier when I made that great point.
“I think they (WWE) do everything differently. Some people need exact verbiage of what they are going to say and some people do better with the gist. I’m a gist kind of gal.”
Based on the delivery we have seen so far, it wouldn’t seem like she’s a ‘gist kind of gal’ as the common evaluation on her promos so far is that it doesn’t seem natural and you could argue that because she’s so new and she’s been thrown into the deep end with little experience, then she’s the one star you’d expect to be given the scripted promos.
It’s not all been a failure, though. Her no-nonsense, badass side has come across very well when it needs to, such as her brilliant arm socket line. So, it could be possible that once she turns heel, she might end up being brilliant on the microphone.
What do you make of Ronda Rousey’s promos being unscripted in WWE? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.