WWE Royal Rumble 2019: Star Ratings For All 10 Matches
5. Ronda Rousey Vs. Sasha Banks - RAW Women's Title Match
A ferocious, unvarnished fight, this was the platonic ideal of a major Royal Rumble title match.
We knew that there was no chance of Sasha Banks capturing the RAW Women's Title; like the great one-off experiments of yore - Bret Hart Vs. Razor Ramon, Kurt Angle Vs. Chris Benoit, Edge Vs. Dolph Ziggler - we were asked a different question. We weren't really asked if the title could change hands, but rather if Sasha could hang with the Champion and make us question a fact. In rediscovering her swagger, she succeeded.
This was her finest performance in years.
This was a literal rediscovery; as the match entered its white-hot final phase, Banks, with Rousey trapped in the Banks Statement, stamped the holy hell out of her hand. This followed some awesome, tense exchanges, in which Rousey invoked the spirit of 2015 within her opponent. Dismissing Sasha's Three Amigos tribute act by countering it, it was as if Ronda was telling Sasha to stop playing a wrestler. To stop f*cking around. Sasha met the challenge by bending Rousey's arm into a disgusting, unnatural angle in just one of several sequences in which she smothered her with submissions. This was The Boss living up to her name; Ronda at times was totally subservient to her motivated dominance.
Ugly and rough in a way that added to the end-at-any-time drama, the shocking prospect of Rousey not merely losing, but tapping, was rendered totally believable.
Star Rating: ****