10 WWE Superstars Who Went From Hero To Zero In A Heartbeat
7. Ronda Rousey
A slightly different tale here, as Rousey has worked in and around the main event the entirety of her WWE career to date and is, rightly, treated like a marquee star. Indeed, when she appeared at Royal Rumble 2018, and made her in-ring at that year’s WrestleMania, her reception simply blew the roof off.
Rousey remained a fan favourite for many months, and she put on great matches with Nia Jax and Nikki Bella, as well as an effective angle with Alexa Bliss. At Survivor Series 2018 she was set to take on Becky Lynch, but an ill-placed punch by Jax put Lynch legitimately on the shelf, and Rousey instead fought Charlotte Flair.
It’s so hard to tell what happened here. Overnight, the WWE universe en masse decided that they didn’t like Rousey anymore. The match ended in DQ after Flair snapped and battered Ronda with a kendo stick, and the L.A crowd praised the divisive Flair to high heaven, even as Rousey was stretchered out of the Staples Centre.
WWE smartly pivoted Ronda to a cocky, killer heel, and she was even better in this role, baiting Lynch with kayfabe-breaking tweets and helping build a historic WrestleMania main event. Whether she’ll be back again remains to be seen, but the sudden turn of the fans remains a tough one to puzzle out.