Ronda Rousey has laughed off suggestions that she should be fired after a disappointing performance at Survivor Series. At the event, Rousey successfully defended her SmackDown Women’s Title against Shotzi, but many fans were less than impressed with the action in the ring.
Rousey already has a strained relationship with a section of WWE’s fanbase, and that has only gotten worse in the days following her last match. “Fire Ronda Rousey” was trending during both Raw and SmackDown following the event, as she came under fire for her attitude and in-ring skills. Her critics also pointed to two spots in her match with Shotzi as evidence that she’s underperforming.
The first saw Rousey seemingly out of position to turn a Shotzi top rope dive into a slam, and the second saw her seemingly block a DDT onto the apron, which led Shotzi to fall to the floor.
Ronda Rousey Claims DDT Botch Came From Trying To Protect Shotzi
During a recent gaming stream Rousey broke down the match, and what went wrong. The former UFC star said that she was so focused on trying to keep her opponent safe that she messed up the move. She also hit back at those criticising her, pointing to the incidents earlier in the year involving Big E and Madcap Moss.
“You ever wake up from a deep sleep and think of a cringe moment in your life? And you lay awake in bed?
Well I had one of those this morning. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and I was like, oh God. That DDT on the apron [Rousey laughed]. So let me explain what happened. I actually pitched that spot because I loved that she [Shotzi] does that but we couldn’t practice it in my ring because the ropes were too loose, and then we couldn’t practice it when we got to the arena because there was these big cages.
So everybody was like — I’ve taken DDTs before but I’ve never helped anybody over the floor so they were like, ‘Okay, you gotta have your hand here on her leg, another hand on her hip and you’re gonna guide her over’ and everyone was so focused on, ‘Gotta guide her over. Guide her to the floor’ that it was literally all that was on my mind when it happened and so when I was like, guide her and when she was down, I was like, oh f*ck. Just go to where you’re supposed to go.
So, yeah, I f*cked it up because I was so concerned with keeping somebody safe and a lot of times when you see me do something the first time, it’s the first time I ever did it. It’s the first time I ever did it, I was really concerned with keeping Shotzi safe and I made it look bad and you know what? I’m sorry, okay. F*cking shoot me. Apparently, I deserve to be fired or burned.
It reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they were like, ‘Burn her!’… There weren’t calls to fire anybody when Madcap Moss and Big E were spiked on their heads and they were like, burn her anyway! I’m so sorry that I was so concerned with keeping someone safe that I made the bump look bad.”
Rousey added that the match was also cut, suggesting that things were just turning around as they were told to go to the finish.
“But what really bummed me out is when my favorite thing in matches which is turning around a hostile crowd and we’re in Boston so of course they’re hostile because, you know, they’re angry at the fact that they live there and right when we got them turned around with the ‘holy sh*ts’ and the crossbody into the fans, I’m like, f*ck yeah, we’re turning it around.
We got all the awesome sh*t coming up and then Shotzi rolls me in the ring and they’re like, ‘Get out of there.’ They’re basically like, ‘Plan B, get out of there. We’re out of time, you gotta go.’
I’m like, ‘What!?’ And she was going up and I’m like, sorry girl and I had to run up and throw her down and throw her in the Piper’s armbar and get out of there because that’s what they were telling me on my mics because I guess the match before us went over by like six minutes [AJ Styles vs. Finn Balor] and they were really concerned about going over on time and match after us was a three-way so they wouldn’t be able to communicate with each other… They couldn’t cut that out [WarGames] so it was like the only place where they could get that time back.”
Looking back on the match as a whole Ronda Rousey said that she felt she had “failed” Shotzi by not giving her the best platform to showcase her skills.
“So, I was kind of bummed though because we worked on that match for two weeks and we were really excited about it and I feel like I really kind of failed Shotzi. I really wanted to showcase her sh*t and make all of her sh*t look great and show everybody how great she is and that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to come back for this run is showcase a new talent and show people…
And show everybody how great Liv [Morgan] is and Shotzi is and Raquel [Rodriguez] and Shayna [Baszler] and showcase all these women that haven’t been getting the attention that I think that they deserve and I failed. But that wasn’t the match. That was beginning of the match and I’m kind of bummed we’re getting judged from not really what we put together.”
Despite the negative comments from a number of fans, Ronda Rousey has found some support from veterans within the business. Ric Flair came to the defence of the star after Survivor Series describing her as “fabulous.” Flair stated that Rousey’s opponents need to be taken into account, adding that they need to pull their weight too.
Dutch Mantell also spoke up in defence of the star, explaining that he didn’t blame her for any of the supposed botches at Survivor Series.
H/t to Post Wrestling