ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman was a guest on Busted Open Radio discussing Ronda Rousey’s future, WWE not wanting anything to do with her after her first loss, whether or not Raw should be two hours and more. Below are some of the interview highlights:
On Ronda Rousey Being a Broken Star:
Unfortunately what happened to Ronda Rousey over the weekend; unfortunately I had predicted it almost down to exactly the minute and what would happen, and what could happen to her going forward. I want wrestling fans to understand that this is not a guess, or an educated guess. You have to understand that when you try to bring somebody in from the outside, and let’s mention a few of those names, just to give those people on Twitter some respect; that they’ve been comparing Ronda Rousey to some of the other legends WWE has brought in. They say, well, Brock Lesnar lost a fight and WWE still brought him in. Mike Tyson lost a fight and WWE still brought him in. What people have to understand is that those two individuals have nothing to do with Ronda Rousey. It’s not really a fair comparison. You’re talking about a woman, who I have a great deal of respect for. Anybody who wants to insult her, and the way she got knocked down..there are very few fighters in any sport; whether it’s MMA or Boxing, that have not been knocked out at some point. Look at what she did. She took 13 months off. She was essentially a recluse. We really didn’t see much of her other than the commercials that she did in order to earn a living, and then she came out and got absolutely obliterated, as I called it on First Take. If you don’t change what you are doing. If you are not changing the way you train, then there are a lot of women now who are training like great Boxers, like Amanda Nunes. Amanda Nunes is a complete beast. Nobody was giving her the respect that she deserves, so when you look at Ronda Rousey now..what do you have now that she wasn’t before the fight? The WWE would have taken her before the fight. People want to Tweet out pictures of her when she was with The Rock. Guess when that was? That was Wrestlemania, 2015. I’ll say this before, and I will say it again; there has never been an athlete in the history of sports that their self worth, and I don’t like saying this but it’s true..their self worth is so tied to their professional success, think about that for a second; when she lost, she was not only devastated; when she lost, the thoughts that were going through her head were not good ones, and hopefully she understands that she has gone much farther than any female in sports, and hopefully she can latch on to a positive, but as far as the WWE is concerned, they don’t bring in a broken star, and that is what she is. She is broken from a professional sense. They don’t rebuild broken celebrities outside of the WWE. Brock started in the WWE. Ken Shamrock was a fighter who lost, but any of these comparisons, are not only fair to them, but they’re not fair to Ronda Rousey. They are never going to bring her in because the fans won’t treat her fairly, and what exactly are they going to do with her at this point?
On Raw Being 3 Hours:
They have asked me about this, and that is what is nice about having me, who is a friend of the company still, is that they will call and ask my opinion on certain things because I have an outside perspective. We have this certain dome world, this bubble, which happens to us who live in Bristol, CT, and the rest of the world sees this gorgeous studio all the time, and you tend to lose a little perspective. I think that sometimes when you are in that world, you lose perspective. When you decide to go three hours, you are stretching out a bunch of really good talent, sometimes you use them twice for a show. Back when I started, and you had The Rock or Stone Cold, Undertaker and Triple H–all these stars. Guess how much you saw them? You saw them once, and maybe twice if you had an interview and then a main event, and that was it. So the way you were able to anticipate, like when you saw The Rock, you felt that you better be tuned in. You better be ready, and if you can see a guy two or three times, you feel like you can catch him at a later time like hour number 2 or 3. I think it’s a mistake to do 3 hours; again, it is easier said than done. There are a lot of money involved, a lot of TV contracts involved, and I get it. I know why USA wants to do it, but for me to want to have the best show possible, I would do 2 hours on Monday Night.
Busted Open can be heard Monday with Doug Mortman and Dave LaGreca, Tuesday and Wednesday from 2p-4p Eastern Time only on SiriusXM Rush Channel 93 and if you’d like to hear the full interview It can be found online at SiriusXM.com/OnDemand or on your phone on the SiriusXM App.
