Yep, Ronda Rousey starred in WrestleMania 34’s best match

To say Ronda Rousey had a successful debut in her first-ever pro wrestling match would be an understatement. The MMA star and her tag partner, IRL Olympian Kurt Angle, beat corporate bad guys Stephanie McMahon and Triple H in a match that had the New Orleans crowd falling over itself.

Here we are, the morning after the biggest show of the year — one that was really good, until the confusing end — and the match I really want to watch again is Rousey’s. And maybe Braun Strowman winning the tag team titles virtually by himself.

From Cageside Seats’ poll on the best match of the night, where the mixed tag match runs away with it (note which match ranks second, too):

And another poll at CS had her as far and away the event’s biggest gainer, with Charlotte Flair in second place.

All of this further fuels early rumors of 2019’s show in New Jersey having WWE’s first-ever women’s main event at a WrestleMania, between Rousey and Flair.

Every second Rousey spent in the ring, she looked like she belonged. The match was well-constructed to keep her on the sideline to build suspense and prevent exposing a surely still-limited move set, but she surprised by breaking out a hurricanrana on Triple H, showing she’ll get to use her full athleticism, rather than just be cast as the scary grappler who breaks people’s arms.

And that arm bar, one of the extremely few finishing moves to already be a demonstrated real-life finisher, is immediately one of the most over finishers in all of wrestling. Opponents having to avoid it is now an easy narrative block for every Rousey match. The crowd wanted nothing more than to see her lock the bad guys in that hold for good, and exploded when it finally happened.

Credit obviously also goes to mentor Angle and to Triple H and Stephanie for being the best in the world at something very important: making people really want to see them get beaten up.

“You saw it out there. That’s her first match. Look how she blew the roof off the joint,” Angle said. “Ronda has a big future here.

“This is what she was meant to do,” he said of one of MMA’s biggest stars ever.

If WWE can tell the story right, Flair vs. Rousey for a women’s title would be a fantastic main event. The women’s division was already loaded with talent, and as of now, it’s just about the most exciting thing WWE has.