PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

SMILING RONDA, THE HULKSTER DOES IT AGAIN, ROH VS. WWE AND MORE

You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.

Part of Ronda Rousey's mystique during her MMA career was that she never smiled once and had a serious scowl on her face from the moment she made her entrance until after the fight ended.  In WWE, she smiles all the way down the ramp and only gets serious when the match starts.  We know having her smile is a Vince McMahon directive, as we know he likes his "smiling babyfaces," but does having Ronda smile and act cheerful during her entrance take away from her mystique and aura?

I think she smiles a bit too much too, but the flip side from Vince’s is perspective is that he is making a character.  In UFC she was a fighter.  Now, she’s a “sports entertainer” and he wants to make her happy go lucky so that when she gets wronged and the mean face comes out, it means something.  He is the billionaire so who am I to tell him he’s wrong?

What is your take on the Dave Meltzer/Peyton Royce situation?  Does Dave's subsequent apology allow him to save face at all, or is the damage done for good?

I didn’t hear the commentary in question, but I did see a transcript of what was said, as well as his apology.  For those that missed it, the quote that got him in trouble was when he said, "But she doesn’t stand out to me … when she was in NXT she did … she was a lot lighter.”  People that listened told me that he was referring to her getting breast augmentation surgery and if so, he really made a bad choice of words in explaining it because in print it looked like he was body shaming her.  She tweeted this to him:

I saw a story from Nine Sports in Australia where they included his apology to her, (can read it by clicking here).  I think he really missed the point in his apology he tweeted when he said, “Again to everyone, I do want to apologize and I'm glad Peyton Royce sent her tweet because there was a valuable point there that we can all learn from.”  For one thing, “we” don’t need to learn anything, he does (and I believe he did).  He made the error and in my opinion should have just said something like, “Peyton, I am very sorry for the really poor choice of words that I used in describing you.  I apologize and it will never happen again.”  To me, you own your mistake and move on, there was no "we" involved.  With that said, I truly don’t think that he had any malice when he said it.  I just think he chose his words really, really poorly and I fully believe he is sorry for what he said.

What do you think about Hulk Hogan saying to Bill Apter that the talents in the WWE locker room that don’t accept his apology are the ones who are wrong?  In case you missed it, this is what he said: "I just hope the brotherhood can get back to the way it was. Outside the ring, you're supposed to protect your brother. In this case, it's a situation where 75, 80, 90 percent of the wrestlers are protecting me and they're giving me another chance to move forward. There's just a few wrestlers that kinda like don't understand the bond and the brotherhood of wrestling. If someone makes a mistake, you need to forgive them and move on and try to let them prove themselves.”

I think that Hulk, once again, is missing the point.  He was the one who used the word.  He can apologize for using it but that doesn’t mean that those who were offended have to simply accept his apology.  If they feel he isn’t actually contrite, they have every right to question the sincerity of Hogan’s words.  I am not saying he didn’t mean it because I don’t know, but think it takes extreme hubris to be the person that did the wrong thing and then get mad when you don’t get absolution.

Over the last few years, WWE have tried desperately to get Roman Reigns over as the big babyface star of the company.  He’s won the Royal Rumble, headlined WrestleMania four years in a row, has clean victories over a multitude of others (HHH, Undertaker, John Cena etc).  So what happens if/when he does win the Universal Title at SummerSlam?  What is there left for him to do?  He’ll be pushed and promoted exactly the same way as he has been in recent months & years, just with a title belt over his shoulder.  Everyone has been left in his wake so there are no mountains left to climb or challengers waiting in the wings.

That’s a good question.  I would guess he would be pushed as “the guy”, like John Cena was, or at least similarly.

Do you think WWE and ROH will do right by the fans and schedule their shows so they not opposite each other during WrestleMania weekend? 

Nope, they will go head to head.  I would love to be able to watch both of them on Saturday too, but they are putting their business first.  WWE won’t change their time so if I were ROH/New Japan, I wouldn’t either.  And with them selling out so quickly, they don’t need to.  Luckily, I can watch ROH live and catch NXT later.  I really want to see the MSG show.

You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.

 

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet