RAW: Rousey’s Ready To Show “The Man” How It’s Done
This week’s Monday Night RAW kicked off with a tag team battle royal, which was quickly cut short as it transformed into an in-ring meeting between RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and two of RAW’s most dominant Superstars: “The Monster Among Men” Braun Strowman and the RAW Women’s Champion, Ronda Rousey. While Stephanie was able to handle Strowman—sort of—when it came to his issues with RAW Acting General Manager Baron Corbin, things were surprisingly less easy when it came to “handling” “The Baddest Woman on the Planet.”
Interrupting Stephanie’s superficial speech about transparency and motivating the RAW troops for Survivor Series on Sunday—a speech in which Stephanie claimed she wasn’t trying to manipulate anyone—Rousey made clear she’s already more than ready for a fight.
As soon as Rousey entered the ring, Stephanie tried to get on her good side— after all that they’ve been through—by introducing the champ, but Rousey wasn’t going to let her waste anyone’s time and cut off the RAW Commissioner’s attempted “pep talk” before it could even start. After weeks of back-and-forth trash talk on RAW, SmackDown LIVE, social media, and everywhere in between, Rousey didn’t have much more to say. But one thing was for sure:
“I’ve been waiting for a challenge like Becky Lynch since I came to WWE.”
This certainly fell in line with Rousey’s statements about how much she respects the SmackDown Women’s Champion, but since Becky Lynch hasn’t exactly shown the same level of respect—or any, really—Rousey’s attitude this week made a great deal of sense. Because Rousey also let the WWE Universe know she’s ready to show “The Man”—a nickname Rousey’s clearly sick of
The Kansas City, MO crowd’s response? “BECKY! BECKY! BECKY!” That was fine, but since Becky wasn’t there, Stephanie would have to do. Except, RAW
Acting General Manager Baron Corbin came to the ring to interrupt. Well, according to him, he actually came “to motivate RAW talent.” While Corbin didn’t “get these hands” from Strowman—despite the Kansas City crowd truly wanting it—he did get tossed around by the RAW Women’s Champion once he started telling her “we can’t get overconfident” and decided to put his hand on her
Acting GM Baron Corbin
Later in the show, Rousey actually responded directly to Becky’s words from last week’s SmackDown LIVE. First, she was clear that she wasn’t trying to mock Becky about her past and all the work Becky put into finally get to the WWE and becoming a champion. But when “The Man” was doing all those other things, what was Rousey doing?
“I was learning armbars.”
After that though, things arguably got a little more into mocking territory, as the RAW Women’s Champion went on to call the SmackDown Women’s Champion “so sensitive.” (Like, really, really sensitive. “Avocado toast” was invoked.) And after letting her opponent know getting overly emotional isn’t going to win her the Champion vs. Champion match at Survivor Series, Rousey decided she wasn’t pulling punches for anyone anymore:
“Someone needs to tell ‘The Man’ that I am not Charlotte Flair.”
And while she may have called Becky Lynch “the leader of the of Women’s Evolution,” Ronda Rousey also pointed out that she herself didn’t redefine the meaning of “fight like a girl” for said leader to keep going around calling herself “The Man.” Food for thought.