Charlotte Flair on Why Ronda Rousey is Way Ahead of WWE’s Learning Curve

No one was quite sure how Ronda Rousey would fare as a WWE Superstar. Before her WrestleMania 34 debut, many thought the former UFC Champion would fall on her face, but not only has Rousey excelled in WWE, she’s made it look easy.

In a recent interview with Comicbook.com Charlotte Flair discussed Rousey’s seamless transition from the Octagon to WWE’s squared circles. To Flair, Rousey avoided a mistake that trips up most beginners.

“Well, they’re just thinking about the moves and not the meaning behind them. Watching her, she looks like she’s been doing this for years. And that’s very hard to do. It looks effortless. It’s one thing to be an athlete, but it’s another to, just because you’re an athlete doesn’t mean you’re going to be a good WWE Superstar,” said Flair.

What’s more incredible is that Rousey still wrestles far less than most of her peers. Instead, WWE is happy to let her prepare for pay-per-view matches, while still making non-wrestling appearances on Raw. While it may not be the case now, Rousey’s early matches were heavily scripted, but despite having a template, Rousey’s moments were always fluid.

“Who’s ever talking to her or teaching her is doing such a phenomenal job, because the whole goal is to make it look like you’re not thinking. There’s not a second that you think she’s thinking,” said Flair.

Rousey appears to be fully committed to her WWE career, as she’s voiced on several occasions that he is now her life. Her evident passion obvious talent, and blockbuster appeal mad it easy for WWE to crown her Raw Women’s Champion at SummerSlam in August and now Vince McMahon & Co. are able to saddle Rousey with more and more responsibility.

Given her streak of success, McMahon would be foolish to slow play Rousey. What she lacks in mileage, she makes up for in her attention to detail. To Flair, Rousey’s best attribute may be the believability of her offense, defense and range of emotions.

Well one, it’s making things look hard that aren’t hard. Or, being able to do things while telling a story, a performance and being a character. You’re not, “Oh, I don’t believe that.” Or, yeah. And taking an MMA background and mixing it into our world, she’s done a great job. MMA is totally different from what we do,” said Flair.

Flair will know first-hand what its like to stand across the ring from Rousey this Sunday when they meet at Survivor Series. In what was rumored to be a match preserved for WrestleMania, WWE was forced to break the emergency glass when Becky Lynch suffered a broken nose and concussion this week on Raw. Lynch chose Flair as her replacement, and now we’ll be getting a WrestleMania treat in November.