Alexa Bliss Is the Perfect Heel Foil for Surging Ronda Rousey on WWE Raw

On the surface, Alexa Bliss may appear an overmatched champion as she embarks on a rivalry with Ronda Rousey over the Raw Women's Championship. Beyond the obvious, though, she is the perfect heel foil for the soon-to-be UFC Hall of Famer on WWE's flagship brand.

A combination of popularity, credibility and character development should be credited.

The Most Over Heel

There are no women on the Raw women's roster more over as a heel than Bliss.

Since her main roster call-up in summer 2016, she has steadily increased her popularity among fans through careful crafting of her on-screen persona.

Her facial expressions and body language were first up; her appearance was next, with the odes to superheroes and villains such as Harley Quinn striking a chord with the WWE Universe.

Nothing was more important to getting over with the audience than the scathing promos in which she relentlessly targeted the most popular women on the roster. Everyone from Sasha Banks to Bayley, Becky Lynch to Naomi, suffered the attitudinal wrath of Little Miss Bliss.

Her ability to get over with fans masked the fact she was not necessarily as talented or experienced in the ring as her peers. It was absolutely essential in developing her as a champion that she make that connection with the audience, and she did—big time.

The Raw brand has no other villainess even remotely as over as she is in that role.

Mickie James is a veteran of the sport but does not have enough television time or the support of WWE Creative to be considered for that spot. The Riott Squad is developing nicely and gathering momentum through their rivalry with Bayley and Sasha Banks, but they are far too early into their run to challenge Bliss or have the connection she does with fans.

The current Raw women's champion, in the midst of her fifth title reign, is over with the audience to such an extent that she has become one of the faces of WWE's premier show and someone management trusts to both carry significant segments of television and execute angles that will have long-reaching effects on the show.

Without that popularity, she is not even in the conversation for a feud with Rousey, nor would she have achieved everything she has to this point in her main roster run.

Credibility With The Audience

If the five championship reigns do not convince fans that Bliss is the top heel on the Raw roster and deserving of a feud with the red-hot Rousey, the wins she has compiled certainly do.

Since arriving on the scene in 2016, she has defeated the likes of Lynch, Banks, Bayley, James and Nia Jax. If that isn't enough, she has somehow managed to accomplish those victories cleanly and without controversy in a WWE that continuously books in a manner as to suggest villains cannot possibly win fair and square against its good guys and girls.

The champion has pinned the shoulders of some of the most respected women in the sport and enhanced her own credibility in the process.

More so than the other heels on the roster, who win in underhanded fashion or lose when the lights are brightest, Bliss has proved a big-match performer who wins and does so convincingly, even when the odds are not in her favor.

While all signs would seemingly point to Bliss being demolished by Rousey at a show such as SummerSlam, the champion has been booked so well and so credibly that it is not out of the realm of possibility that she would somehow find a way to exploit an injury, or fake one of her own in the middle of the match, and sneak away with her title intact.

That seed of doubt, which exists because of the manner in which she has been booked at the forefront of the division, makes her the perfect foil for Rousey's first real feud post-WrestleMania.

Character Development

Bliss is a cunning heel whose ability to talk a big game but somehow survive every instance in which it appears she is going to receive her comeuppance makes her a strong character in today's sometimes bland world of sports entertainment.

She is the yapping chihuahua in a world full of bigger, stronger, nastier, more credible dogs that would appear ready to eat her up at the first chance, but somehow she escapes relatively unscathed.

No matter how annoying or insufferable she gets, she always finds a way to emerge stronger, better and more successful than before.

Look no further than Money in the Bank.

Two months after suffering a major defeat at WrestleMania, in which she dropped her Raw Women's Championship to Nia Jax, she won the coveted briefcase and cashed her title opportunity in grand fashion.

She not only avenged her defeat by attacking Jax and turning her title dream into a nightmare, she cost the biggest star on the roster the opportunity to hold the top prize on the brand.

It was a monumental moment and arguably one of the best cash-ins in WWE history.

The crowd in Chicago erupted, proof of her popularity with the audience. The following night, though, fans booed heavily at her braggadocios followup promo and cheered even louder when Rousey finally got her hands on her and powerbombed Bliss through a table.

Bliss has developed into that heel who is so bad she's awesome, but at the same time, fans still want to see her silenced by a more badass opponent. That sort of character is invaluable and in this case, will make the impending match with the former UFC champion even more anticipated and exciting.

Not to mention a genuine main event match on a roster that features guys like Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Braun Strowman and Daniel Bryan.