Ronda Rousey made her big return at the Royal Rumble by winning the Women’s Rumble match and earning the right to challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Title at WrestleMania 38.
Rousey had previously talked about not liking the travel schedule in WWE and dealing with negative fans. Towards the end of her first WWE run, she turned heel after the fans started to boo her. Now that she’s back, Rousey is supposed to be a babyface against Flair, who is a heel. However, Rousey came across like she was portraying a heel character at the Royal Rumble and during her promo segment on last week’s Raw. However, on Friday Night SmackDown, she was acting more like a face.
Dave Meltzer noted on the Wrestling Observer Radio that some within WWE spoke to Rousey after her Raw promo and told her to let go of the past.
“Yeah, I believe people were talking to her about Monday,” Meltzer said before Bryan Alvarez recalled Rousey smiling and slapping hands with the fans.
Meltzer noted, “She acknowledged the fans. She was very bitter coming back, and I think that that was not a good attitude to have, especially since she’s being portrayed as a babyface. Like people, when they saw her, go, ‘Oh my God, she’s being a heel’, and it’s like, ‘No, that’s just Ronda.’ Then they had to talk her out of basically going, ‘These people are cheering you, you have to acknowledge them, you don’t mean-mug them.’
She wants to be there because she doesn’t have to do this. She hates the fans because of them turning on her, but you have to let that go. I presume somebody explained to her. I know people talked to her about certain things. It was explained that you have to let that go because, if you’re going to be bitter about that…you’re not supposed to be a heel and if you’re bitter at the fans you’re not going to be a very good babyface. She was way better.”
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