10 Wrestlers Who Have Suffered The Most Since WrestleMania 34
Rudderless Ronda Rousey.
WrestleMania 34 presented us with both the best and the worst of WWE.
The main card started off at an incredible canter with what was the ideal opening match: an action-packed Intercontinental Title clash elevated beyond prime TV fare by the mere, grand stage on which it was wrestled. Cultivating a sense of genuine occasion, several shocks surged through the Superdome: Asuka cleanly tapped out to Charlotte, surrendering her Streak; Jinder Mahal tasted championship gold where most predicted he'd end up a comedy midcard jobber weeks after surrendering his WWE Championship; Stephanie McMahon participated in the best match of a card boasting AJ Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura...
Then, the rot set in. WWE's lame comedy resurfaced, twice, as did its all-too-slow and simplistic big match style, insistence on the McMahon family, and a stranger still insistence on burying a man WWE has elevated to the chagrin of everybody. From the progressive to the regressive, from the barnstorming to the boring, from the sublime to the ridiculous, this was the definition of WWE in 2018 in all of its paradoxical (in)glory. The card spluttered as it groaned to a halt. As yet, WWE - nor too many of its marquee performers - have re-fuelled.
It's no use concentrating on those already mired in the gutter, like Mandy Rose or, somehow, Gran Metalik; this list mourns for those who, against all reason, are plummeting to their depths...*
*Sami Zayn excepted. The man has done himself a service by delivering awful, awful material somewhat respectably...
10. Ronda Rousey
Following her incandescent performance in New Orleans - the fire, athleticism, registering, timing, improvisation, everything was unbelievable, given her experience level - most would have settled for, even welcomed, a sort of diminished return. Perhaps a personal grudge programme with an experienced hand, Mickie James, one easily set-up to ease Ronda into the transition.
Instead, Ronda is set to challenge for the RAW Women's Championship. This isn't a problem in itself - imagine thinking she, once the most-decorated female combat athlete on the planet, already established in the fiction of WWE as more than a match for Triple H, hasn't "earned" it - but the execution of the programme is. The bullied Nia Jax is now a bully in WWE's thoughtless and incoherent week-to-week approach, eradicating any heft, and Ronda has suffered, as all performers do, within the scripted confines of RAW's turgid formula.
Ronda's catastrophic commentary stint was eerily reminiscent of that time WWE stuck a live microphone in Brock Lesnar's mush, when John Cena felt what he was feeling because he made John Cena feel what he felt. Like the Beast, Rousey could only repeat herself, perhaps simply registering the lame words handed to her in disbelief.
WWE will doubtlessly protect the investment on Sunday, putting their best road agents on the case - but the programme itself has badly tarnished her.