Ronda Rousey Has Earned Effusive Praise From Sasha Banks For Stellar Performances
Sasha Banks has helped set the standard over the past three years as one of WWE’s best wrestlers, and Ronda Rousey appears to be ready to do the same as the company’s biggest name. After initially being leery about Rousey’s signing, Banks was full of praise for the recent UFC Hall of Fame inductee.
One day Ronda Rousey and Sasha Banks will meet in the center of a WWE ring, and the WWE Universe will be treated to one of the greatest matches of all-time (and notice I didn’t just qualify it as one of the best “women’s” matches of all-time).
Until then, we’ll just have to wait for two of the best and most respected in-ring performers in WWE to cross paths. Unsurprisingly, Banks has a great deal of respect for Rousey, who impressed “The Legit Boss” (among others) with her standout performances at WrestleMania 34 and Money in the Bank.
Even though Banks was among those who initially wondered if it was fair for Rousey to have the spotlight so quickly despite not proving herself as a professional wrestler, she told CBS Sports’s “In This Corner” podcast that she is both “impressed” with Rousey and extremely excited to watch her WWE career unfold.
Quote transcribed by CBS Sports’s Brian Campbell:
"“She has been killing it. She has proven all the doubters wrong, and it’s so crazy to see her matches. I’m in shock; I’m in awe. I loved her match at WrestleMania. I loved her match at Money in the Bank, and I definitely think she’s one to watch. I can’t believe Money in the Bank was only her second match. I am so impressed, and I hope that I get to wrestle her in the future. I’m so excited for her career in WWE, and man, she really has been killing it.”"
Rousey’s Raw Women’s Championship match against Nia Jax at Money in the Bank seemed like it had been announced months too soon, but Rousey once again proved the skeptics wrong. By all accounts, she is one of the hardest workers in the locker room, and Rousey showed off all that hard work by putting on a clinic. She’s already one of WWE’s best sellers, and she and Nia both had the best performances of their careers on the night, prior to Alexa Bliss crashing the party with one of the most memorable and controversial MITB cash-ins ever.
It seems like Rousey’s opponent for SummerSlam will be Bliss, who defends the Raw Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules against Jax in what will be their third PPV matchup of 2018. The assumption is that Bliss will retain and drop the title to Rousey.
Just months into her WWE career, Rousey is already more than prepared to carry a title in WWE from an in-ring standpoint, and Banks’s praise cannot go understated. This is one of the elite wrestlers in the world praising Rousey’s in-ring prowess, and that speaks volumes to how the rest of the WWE Women’s Division views Rousey as a professional.
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Also, credit to Banks for being willing to praise Rousey so effusively and open up about initially being uneasy about Rousey joining WWE. Rousey won her over, and it’s high time the most reluctant members of the WWE Universe changed their tune, too. If Rousey has been good enough to earn Banks’s praise as a wrestler, she’s been good enough to earn theirs, too.