25 Great Wrestlers That EVERYBODY Turned Against
22. Ronda Rousey
Comparisons to Kurt Angle didn't seem that wild as Ronda Rousey wrapped up her maiden year with WWE in the main event of WrestleMania.
The triple threat against Charlotte Flair and eventual winner Becky Lynch was far from perfect, but just about everything else she did from her debut at the prior WrestleMania onwards certainly was. Her debut alongside Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon was a cast-iron Sports Entertainment instant classic, and she rode a wave of momentum into the summer months, becoming Women's Champion and working thrilling bouts against everybody from Nia Jax to Nikki Bella. 2018 was the year of the first women's Royal Rumble and the first all-women's pay-per-view Evolution. She debuted at one and headlined the other. 'The Baddest Woman On The Planet' was all in on WWE, and audiences were as grateful for her work as she seemed to be to have the opportunity to present it.
A brutal Survivor Series scrap with Flair was the best of the lot, but that was the night something shifted in the stands. Ronda heard boos (and lots of them) for the first time, and couldn't hide how crushed she was. That upset eventually turned to anger, and the character went from babyface to tweener to heel in a matter of weeks, supported by a host of caustic social media posts that were either in keeping with her character's shift or simply the real person getting frustrations out on a fanbase that had collectively turned its back.
Her Royal Rumble return in 2022 carried the burden of this breakdown, and a lack of great matches to offer a counter-argument resulted in disinterest winning out. Her final exit from the company in October 2023 was an auspiciously quiet affair, standing in direct contrast to going out at the top of the game four years earlier.