5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (March 30)

WWE has promoted Triple H and Stephanie McMahon vs. Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey with aplomb.

Using continuity and classic bungling Kurt Angle comedy to set the storyline in motion, Trips and even Stephanie have sold for Ronda, who, given her level of experience, has performed well enough in such a featured spot. Even the make-up team is doing the job; the ridiculous eyeliner helps distract us from Ronda's jitters.

A quite large plot hole still remains, in that, at one point, Ronda Rousey was the baddest woman on the planet. Now, you could argue that Stephanie is too, but for vastly different reasons. Stephanie can sports entertain - her match with Vince at No Mercy 2003 was amazing, under the circumstances - but she is no credible threat to Rowdy Ronda: legitimate, decorated combat athlete. It's the equivalent of Brock Lesnar wrestling Shane McMahon, which should be a great analogy but isn't, because we're meant to believe in the fiction of WWE that Shane is a hard man. He actually might be. Read on.

How would WWE fill this gaping chasm of logic?

With pure ego, as became apparent on Monday night...

Gauging by the inscrutable vignette screened on RAW, it appears that we are to take seriously Stephanie McMahon as an opponent for Ronda Rousey. It was either utter egotism, or completely ineffective promotion obscuring what we're in for on the Grandest Stage. The Authority's personal strength and conditioning coach, Joe DeFranco, had the following to say:

"I've prepared UFC fighters, I've prepared NFL football players for the Superbowl, I've prepared Olympic athletes. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are not only up there with that calibre of athlete, they're exceeding what those athletes are doing."

On the face of it, so much of the content was ludicrous that we must have been expected to laugh at it. Steph pointed out that Ronda hadn't even wrestled one match, as opposed to her grand total of 23, "Mud Pool", "Whipping", and all. "Ronda should be intimidated by me," Steph continued. Trips agreed: "This is an entirely different level of human being at play here."

The problem was the tone of the video, the way in which it was framed. There was no Vinnie Mac chicken chasing here. With an ominous soundtrack of synths and drone blasts straight out of Blade Runner 2049 playing over fairly impressive footage of Stephanie McMahon punching the bag she replaced Mick Foley with, the humourless presentation of these apparent super athletes jarred with the comedy in the script, which we must therefore deduce was unintentional. Steph does throw a better punch than her brother, we'll give her that - but there was no heat, no joke to get in on, because we were too busy pondering what message WWE was trying to transmit. To close the video, Steph declared that "We will humble Ronda Rousey the same way we have humbled every other superstar in WWE."

So that's her in for some childish promos, 50/50 booking and verbal humiliation, then.