13 Ups & 9 Downs For WWE In 2022

7. Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey
WWE.com

Ronda Rousey has been struck with that most dreaded of modern WWE ailments - she's had too much WWE for her own good.

'The Baddest Woman On The Planet' was never more in keeping with her old nickname than when she was brand spanking new out there. The less she knew the better, or more specifically, the less she appeared to know, the more awesome things were.

Her debut was a peak few in wrestling ever reach, full stop, but her 2018-2019 run in totality drew comparisons to Kurt Angle for how quickly she picked up the vast and challenging array of skills needed to be a megastar within WWE. Equal parts controlled and reckless but never short of the charisma that had made her one of the biggest stars in the world before her debut, she gave the likes of Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Bella some of their most entertaining matches ever, looked like she belonged across from Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Bayley, and portrayed her beast-mode variant against the likes of Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan with a terrifying quality befitting of somebody that survived the danger of the UFC cage.

The vibe felt wrong from the off in 2022, but that was initially put down to the Royal Rumble's overall rankness. A WrestleMania loss to Charlotte Flair was too humbling even if she beat her the following month, and her stint thus far has been more defined by Premium Live Event stinkers against Liv Morgan and Shotzi than the quality brawl with 'The Queen' back in May. The that-which-cannot-be-defined intangible has departed her too, which even good booking next year might not be able to restore.

An assumed match with Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 39 will answer a lot of tricky questions - if the pair can summon the magic of their 2018/19 series, Rousey might yet be able to re-ascend to something beyond the normalised presence she's become.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.