Kurt Angle Was Surprised By Ronda Rousey’s WrestleMania Performance

She shocked the world. Earlier this month at WrestleMania 34, Ronda Rousey made her in-ring WWE debut in a mixed tag match. The performance was widely praised as one of the best matches of the night and an amazing performance overall. The match featured Rousey teaming with Kurt Angle to face Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a winning effort. It was such an impressive performance that one of the match’s participants was rather taken by surprise.

He should be proud.

Ronda Rousey celebrates her WrestleMania debut with Kurt Angle: Exclusive, April 8, 2018

In an interview with USA Today, Angle talked about how impressed he was with Rousey, who took to the ring very quickly. Angle goes on to talk about how the match was structured and what he was expecting from Rousey as they came into the match. He also discusses how he reacted to the match and how the fans took to Rousey. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

On Rousey Being A Natural Like He Was

I did pick it up very quickly. As a matter of fact, I had my first match on my third day in the business. I didn’t necessarily see Ronda in that light, what I saw was Ronda getting an opportunity where we trained her, for this match, and we didn’t know how it was going to pan out. She knew what she had to do, she knew how the match was supposed to play out, but very seldom do you find a talent that their first match is WrestleMania.

On Rousey Shining On The Grand Stage

I wouldn’t do that to myself. When I was starting out, there’s no way in hell I’d want that opportunity – because there’s no way but down. Ronda was able to not only prove a lot of people wrong, but, I mean, she stole the show.

And On Worries Going Into The Match

It was a great structure. Triple H and myself, we structured the match, but it was her that went out there and did it. She performed beyond our expectations. We… we weren’t nervous that she was going to fail, we were just nervous that maybe the fans wouldn’t take to her the way they did. And they did – they took to her from the beginning, and she just got better as the match went on. Not only with her technique, but her facials, and the way she took her time. She acted like she was a seasoned veteran, and she’s not.

You can read the full interview here.

Forget the match?  Here’s our full review.

Opinion: I can’t say I blame Angle, or anyone for that matter, for being a little apprehensive about what the fans might think of Rousey. The WrestleMania crowd is one of the pickiest of the year and if they don’t like you, you’re pretty much done from the start (see also Roman Reigns). Rousey defied expectations and got the fans on her side, which is quite the accomplishment on its own.

What did you think of Rousey’s performance? How far can she go in WWE? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 26 wrestling books. His latest book is the WWE Grab Bag.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!