Ronda Rousey Trending Up After Impressive WWE Money in the Bank Match vs Nia Jax

Ronda Rousey continues to make excellent strides as an in-ring WWE performer.

She and Nia Jax put on a phenomenal match at Money in the Bank. The screwy finish did nothing to detract from its impressiveness. This match had a story to it, and both women told it convincingly. 

WWE fans are typically suspicious when a new Superstar debuts and is immediately pushed to the top of the card. It reeks of favoritism and politics; for whatever reason, the new Superstar has not earned their top spot as the other women had to.

No WWE Superstar has gotten the immediate push Rousey has. She debuted at WrestleMania 34, in a match that involved Kurt Angle, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. She was exhibited as the most dominant competitor of the four, and she even pummeled The Game against the turnbuckles.

Her match at Money in the Bank was only her second pay-per-view performance, and it was for the Raw women's title. Although Jax is more experienced than Rousey, she is relatively inexperienced compared to the rest of her colleagues.

In short, there was no seasoned performer who could step in and start directing traffic if things got messy. Clearly, Jax and Rousey knew the stakes, because they prepared studiously for their confrontation; there's no other way the match could have looked this good. And despite its rehearsal, there was a wonderful sense of urgency to everything they did. The pair successfully sold that this was a fight and not a choreographed performance.

The match started with Jax dominating Rousey by ramming her in the corner and throwing her across the ring. WWE has made a wise choice to book the former UFC star in competitive matches rather than outright squashes; the fans would have turned on her if victory came too easily. 

Rousey did everything she could to make Jax out as a monster. She bumped hard. She threw herself onto the mat, with lots of intensity to her snaps. There was no ego to get in the way of the narrative.

And when the tide shifted and Rousey mounted her comeback, she didn't magically spring to life and start whaling on her opponent. She would get some offense going and then stagger. She would wobble to her feet after a pin attempt and hold on to the ropes. Fans got the impression that every one of Jax's prior maneuvers exacted a toll.

Compare this to Big Cass' performance against Daniel Bryan earlier in the evening.

Bryan was kicking Cass' legs out from underneath him and was wrenching his knee all night. And yet, no less than a minute later, Cass was walking around like nothing happened. He didn't even flinch when performing a torture rack on Bryan, or when performing any other move that shifted weight to his leg.

Rousey has these little theatrical touches down pat, which makes the bigger plot points matter more.

So much of wrestling looks fluid, as if that's an ideal to strive for. At Money in the Bank, Rousey and Jax performed simple, effective moves—nothing too flashy. But more importantly, they made those moves matter by "struggling" to pull them off and then "suffering" their aftereffects.

Rousey is the real deal. And she has already absorbed a valuable lesson about protecting her opponent's reputation in addition to her own.

Before Alexa Bliss interfered, Rousey was just seconds from locking the armbar on Jax. And now, Bliss has made an enemy of Rousey in addition to Jax. What happens from here depends on whether Rousey is booked for Extreme Rules in July.

If so, Jax and Rousey could have a rematch for the right to face Bliss at SummerSlam in August. But if Rousey's next PPV match is at SummerSlam, we'll probably get a Triple Threat match between all three women.

And that's when Rousey will be crowned Raw women's champion.