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| Don't hold your breath waiting for a follow-up to this Photo Credit: WWE.com |
On one hand, I cannot blame White at all for wanting to protect perhaps his biggest star who isn't currently embroiled in legal hell (hi Jon Bones Jones). Pro wrestling may not have the dangers of real fighting competition that UFC has, but it's also not exactly inherently safe. No matter how different UFC and WWE are at heart, they still pretend like they're in the exact same market (and in some ways, they are).
However, it's still a crazy bummer that White isn't going to let Rousey follow through. Her first and perhaps only match could have been a spectacle for women in WWE the likes of which no one on the roster as situated could provide, at least right now. And of course, the biggest kick in the posterior is that Rousey seems down for more pro graps. She recently was on "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's podcast saying how she wanted more than the taste she got at Mania.
Again though, the blame can't be placed on White here as much as it should be thrown at WWE. Triple H, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and the rest of the crew tasked with making that WrestleMania moment happen needed to realize that in order for it to work, they had to have Rousey cleared for another date down the road. They flew without a net, and now it's bitten them all in the behinds. And of course, the ultimate losers in the whole deal are the fans who got teased. C'est la vie, I suppose. Then again, this incident won't be the first time nor will it be the last when wrestling fans are given the proverbial bait and switch.