6 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 11)

2. Going ‘Off-Script’

Vince Russo did a lot of good things for professional wrestling, but he also had plenty of negative contributions.

One of those was the perpetual worked shoot, where “everything you’re watching is fake, except right now, which is real.” The constant effort to fake out the audience by pretending something was “real” was ridiculous, but largely has fallen by the wayside, save for a few moments where it sneaks out.

But now, the entire Ronda Rousey storyline is rooted in this “fourth wall-breaking” alternate reality, with the Raw Women’s Champion threatening to expose WWE and her WrestleMania opponents for being “carny con-artists.” She called Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair jokes, as was anyone who believed “this charade.”

OK, where to begin…

We all know that wrestling is an athletic soap opera. It insults our intelligence by having a character within the program break the fourth wall to tell us everything is staged and that “in real life,” she could take liberties and dominate her opponents.

There are 100 different ways Rousey could have turned heel and turned up the volume to 11 without breaking the already-deceased kayfabe. That makes it even worse – in 2019, fans are in on the play, so why does “breaking kayfabe” become such a disrespectful thing? It makes your head hurt.

All of this was unnecessary.