WWE Raw: It’s time to turn Ronda Rousey heel

Before Ronda Rousey defends her WWE RAW Women’s Championship against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania, the promotion should move her over to the villainous side.

Ronda Rousey’s time as a babyface on WWE RAW should be just about up.

She can smile and wave to the audience in an “aw shucks” manner, hi-five fans, hand out pocket squares (or whatever’s in that jacket pocket), issue open challenges, and talk about how she’s a fighting champion all she likes. But the fans have begun to see through her one-dimensional babyface act.

Nothing better illuminated this disconnect than last night’s episode of RAW, when Rousey came out and cut her usual awful promo about dreams or something. The fans inside of Talking Stick Resort Arena weren’t having it, as they alternated between booing the RAW Women’s Champion and chanting “Becky!” at her, even causing her to stumble over her words.

The jeering continued throughout Rousey’s title defense against Bayley, as the crowd voiced their displeasure at her almost everytime she was on offense. Then, after she forced Bayley to tap out to her armbar to retain her title, “The Man” came around:

Still selling the knee “injury” she suffered on Sunday night, 2019 women’s Royal Rumble winner Becky Lynch hobbled down to the ring and once again gave Rousey a lesson in how to cut a riveting babyface promo, much to the delight of those in attendance.

As the weeks pass, this will not get any better for Rousey. Chances are that fans will continue to bombard her with negative chants as we get closer and closer to WrestleMania. WWE tends to put their metaphorical heads in the sand and pretend like the crowd reactions like this are a one-time aberration, but they should ride this wave, do the right thing, and turn Ronda Rousey heel.

Putting aside the fact that her past problematic comments made her a less than ideal person to get behind, it says a lot that Rousey has seemed the most comfortable on the microphone when she’s shaming her opponents for their sex life, ridiculing their past career choices, and decrying millennials (even though she herself is a millennial) more than she does when she regurgitates milquetoast “I’ll take on all comers” verbiage.

That trend continued last night when Rousey gave her rebuttal to Lynch’s challenge. While there wasn’t much in her promo that stood out as overly-detestable — though the sarcastic “How’s your leg?” quip was clearly a heelish taunt — but it was clear that she felt more at home talking down to her opponent instead to going through the whole “I respect you” routine.

Combine all of that with the specter of her fellow Four Horsewomen Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir’s eventual call-ups for this long-awaited showdown with the NXT Four Horsewomen, and turning Rousey heel makes all the sense in the world.

Yes, WWE could go through their usual “it doesn’t matter who gets booed or cheered as long as they get a reaction” rhetoric and push Lynch/Rousy as a face vs. face clash — it wouldn’t be the first time they erroneously presented a wrestler as a heroic figure opposite Lynch.

But no matter how hard they try to present Rousey as a protagonist in this feud, the derision from fans won’t dissipate. It may be muted some weeks, but there is almost a 100 percent chance that all of her promos will be accompanied by audible chants for her WrestleMania opponent, especially if Lynch shows up on RAW for a few more confrontations as part of the build to the big match.

The Lynch/Rousey story already has a strong heroine and it isn’t the competitor that coined an acronym for women that don’t fit into her narrow idea of women’s empowerment. Fans aren’t going to cheer her over one of the most endearing characters in wrestling. So, if WWE wants to make an already-compelling match even more interesting, they will let Rousey portray herself as someone who truly doesn’t care about her “Bad Reputation”.