Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on various topics on the latest episode of his 83 Weeks Podcast, including Ronda Rousey, days after the former WWE star worked Friday’s ROH TV tapings.
After August’s SummerSlam event, Rousey had wrapped up with WWE, where Shayna Baszler went over the former WWE Women’s Champion in an MMA rules match.
At the ROH TV tapings after Collision and Rampage, she worked a tag team match. Rousey was under a handshake agreement with the company, which hopes to use her again in the future if she wants to do more matches. The call to put the match on ROH TV was to boost HonorClub subscriptions.
Bischoff on Rousey
According to Bischoff, Rousey is overrated in the wrestling business and never clicked for him when she was getting the big push in WWE.
“Eh, I think she’s….I don’t want to say [she’s] overrated, but I think in terms of the professional wrestling industry, she’s overrated,” Bischoff stated. “Obviously very accomplished mixed martial artists, very accomplished in judo. Phenomenal athlete, but she never clicked for me in WWE despite a push from the gods. She got an amazing push, but there was something lacking with her, and she never clicked with me. I don’t think she really clicked with the audience. Not long after she first arrived. I think the shine kind of wore off the star pretty quickly, and I never got the feeling that she was really serious about the industry.”
Lack of impact
Bischoff noted that he doesn’t feel that Rousey didn’t put in a full effort, but it takes more than just the performance as he thinks she never embraced wrestling. He pointed to her loss to Holly Holm in UFC as a point where she whined a little bit and didn’t handle the fallout in the media well before going to WWE. It should be noted she fought Amanda Nunes after the Holm bout and lost before going to WWE.
“I just don’t think she’s as big a name as people sometimes think she is,” Bischoff stated. “I don’t think she’d matter to a buyer. I don’t think there’s going to be a media buyer out there or a programming buyer out there, or an executive that’s going, ‘Oh, wait a minute, you got Ronda Rousey. I wasn’t too sure about this deal, but now I really want to do it.’ I don’t see that.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
