Ronda Rousey is incredible business for AEW, whether fans agree or not

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The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D’Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D’Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.

AEW reached a major milestone last Sunday with its AEW Revolution pay-per-view selling 12,000 tickets to the Crypto.com Center (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles.

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This was not AEW All Out, their biggest show of the year, and it wasn’t in the UK, which is a market starved for major shows. This was a regular AEW pay-per-view in one of the toughest markets in North America, and they drew a massive crowd.

And the show was AEW at its best. Tony Khan's promotion gives its audience a whole lot of wrestling, a whole lot of intensity. AEW knows exactly what kind of product it is and who it is for.

There was a ton of blood, maybe a little too much for some people, but AEW has clearly said they are an adult product and they are going to continue to be an adult product.

At this point, if you watch AEW and support it, then you know what you are getting.

Some people are not going to like the ultra-violence, and that is fair enough, but AEW is not pretending to be anything other than what it is. I think some people want AEW to be family friendly purely because they are sick of WWE’s sky-high ticket prices, but AEW is and always should do what’s right for AEW and try not to be reactive to WWE.

The hardcore stuff, the spectacle, the violence, the blood, it is all part of AEW’s package, and for a lot of their audience that is exactly what they are there for.

MJF continues to impress and is having a great run as a heel champion. It will be interesting to see what happens next with "Hangman" Adam Page now, especially with the stipulation that, now he lost at AEW Revolution, Page can never challenge for the AEW World Championship again.

I am sure for the foreseeable future that is going to be honored, but I think we are all interested how AEW might look to get around that in a year or two from now.

John Moxley continues to be an MVP for AEW. He goes out there every time and delivers.

Konosuke Takeshita is just such a good all-around pro-wrestler, and he and Moxley had a great one at Revolution. I want to see more of these two together.

On the women’s side, there was a lot there too, which ties into what we have talked about before in this column. Megan Bayne and Lena Kross winning the tag titles gives you a couple of big, impressive female talents right there.

Megan Bayne is someone who came in a while back, made an impression, then maybe treaded water a little bit, but she feels like somebody who has really found her footing.

Ronda Rousey jumping to AEW was a real surprise, especially with her training to fight Gina Carano in what will surely be one of the most-watched MMA fights of all time (due to it being on Netflix, May 16).

Ronda gets access to the mainstream in a way very few wrestlers can, and AEW getting any kind of promotional rub in the build to Ronda vs. Gina on Netflix is massive.

What makes it especially interesting is that if AEW can lean into any of that attention, even a little, it gives them a real opportunity. Ronda’s real-life BFF Marina Shafir being there gives you a natural connection point, storyline-wise, and if Ronda is around the AEW product at all between now and May, suddenly you have mainstream eyeballs and curiosity coming in to AEW.

“Timeless” Toni Storm is a generational talent at the peak of her powers. If Ronda Rousey can get any new eyeballs on Toni, this is just incredible business for Toni, Tony Khan and AEW as a whole. I hope the fans get that.

AEW’s women’s division is ready for mainstream attention, and Ronda will bring that attention.

By the way, I thought Marina Shafir had a good showing against Toni Storm last Sunday at AEW Revolution. It is tough to make the transition from MMA to wrestling, from not letting anyone see you are hurt to making sure everyone in the cheap seats can see you are "hurt" — everything in MMA is the opposite of the instincts you need in pro-wrestling.

But, she had a really good match with Toni. Even though Toni is a Ric Flair-type who can have a decent match with absolutely everyone, on Sunday Marina showcased just how hard she’s been working. I thought really did herself justice in the match.

As good as he is in any role, Randy Orton has always been incredible as a heel. His brutal attack on WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes on "SmackDown" last week really lit a fire under their WrestleMania 42 match.

It was so well done. Cody using real-life stories — “You are not my dad, you are not my brother, but I will always be proud to be your boy!” — to tug on the heartstrings really set the table for Orton’s brutal assault.

There’s such a thing as telling a story by omission, and Orton using street-fight tactics like a kick between the legs and not the RKO was great work. It told the audience, “This is a brutal assault, not a pro-wrestler using his super-fun, super-over finisher.”

Any thoughts of WWE needing to add Drew McIntyre to the 'Mania main event can be dismissed now.

Cody vs. Orton has heat and, as teased on "Raw," Orton has a surprise in store for Cody.

Randy Orton went full heel on Cody Rhodes on "WWE SmackDown."WWE via Getty Images

I am not sure that we are “there” yet with CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns feeling like a massive WrestleMania main event, but the promos between the two have been very, very strong.

Having FTR retain the AEW tag-team title over the Young Bucks was surprising to a lot of people, especially as Los Angeles is about as close to the Bucks’ hometown as it gets, but it was the right decision.

The Bucks have reached the point where, like a Roman Reigns or Randy Orton or Kenny Omega, they can go years without a title and still be indisputably main-event megastars.

The correct call was to have FTR walk out of the pay-per-view with the belts and go into this exciting feud with Cope and Christian.

Adam “Cope” Copeland and Christian Cage returning to AEW is obviously huge, and it really sets the table for what is next for them. I actually talked to Adam the night before the show, but we didn’t talk any wrestling. We’ve actually never had a talk about how long he wants to wrestle, although he has spoken about having more miles in the rear-view than the road ahead and AEW being his final run.

Adam is in insane shape, can still wrestle at the top level, he’s having great matches in big programs that fans are enjoying, and I can tell he is enjoying it as much as he has in a long time.

And the same goes for Christian. Like Adam, he had his career end on unsatisfactory terms. Then he got this second career in AEW, which he’s grabbed with both hands and has added to his legacy.

Both these lifelong friends are writing their own final chapters to their Hall of Fame-level careers. But neither is on their last page — not if they don’t want it to be.

What I do know is that them coming back gives AEW a tailor-made feud with FTR first, and, down the line, the Young Bucks. That is a year of great matches and storytelling right there and I can’t wait for it.

As loud as the fans popped for Oba Femi power-bombing Brock Lesnar to set up an epic WrestleMania showdown, I didn’t know I badly wanted to see Brock vs. Seth Rollins until WWE teased it.

Brock vs. Rollins could be a big match for the summer.

I saw images on social media of Femi having a tear streak down his face, he was so moved and proud of the reaction he got in his biggest storyline to date with Brock Lesnar on "Raw."

Brock yelling at the young wrestler to put a boot on his chest made me smile. There isn’t too much that’s awesome about getting older, but being able to give younger talent the benefit of your experience is one of them.

WWE knows they’ve got a monster — and quite possibly a monster star — in Femi. And everything is clicking right now.

Speaking of that whole "Raw" segment — Paul Heyman, ladies and gentlemen, brings a commitment to his role that few can match.

He was on "Raw" for all of 45 seconds, basically there to retort to Seth Rollins and bring out Brock Lesnar, but look at what he did with those few moments.

He broke the fourth wall by telling Rollins he was interrupting his “angry promo”, he introduced a new catchphrase “FA/F-5,” a play on “F Around and Find Out,” got his hatred of Rollins over, his absolute commitment to hurting Rollins, brought out Lesnar as a killer, and then reacted to Femi as if the newcomer was the devil himself.

But it was the attention to detail that really struck me. Heyman’s red irises, the bags under his guys, the three days of stubble on his cheeks to communicate that he was not OK, that he was under stress.

Amazing stuff.

I had fun seeing my friends The Good Brothers for their "Talkin’ Shop" podcast. The episode will drop soon on Spotify and YouTube.

We are eight days away from MLP’s Global Wars pay-per-view event, my promotion’s first show of 2026.

It is an interesting development that Mistico, who will be appearing at MLP Multiverse on April 17 at the Palms in Las Vegas, has signed a dual contract with both AEW/ROH and CMLL.

In this new age of promotions working together closer than they have in ages, I think we’ll be seeing more talent sign deals with two or even three promotions at a time.

I’ll be executive producing QT Marshall’s 1FW show this Saturday in Rome, Georgia, at the Forum River Center. It is a TV taping for Peachtree Sports Network and TrillerTV, so this is a real platform, not just some local indy date.

Arn Anderson is returning home to Rome, with son Brock Anderson there, and you have names like Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Billy Gunn, Harley Cameron and Hollywood star Paul Walter Hauser too.

I was very interested that Brian “Road Dogg” James quit his position in WWE creative the other week.

James was a real force in WWE. He’s had real influence behind the scenes, to the point where he was running "SmackDown" and, if Vince McMahon wasn’t there on any given night, Brian would be running things from the Gorilla Position.

I’ve known Brian a very long time and he’s the kind of guy who, if he’s unhappy and feels things aren’t going in a direction he can support, he’s not afraid to “peace out” and leave.

He’s a very smart guy both for the wrestling side and the business side of the “wrestling business.” I saw the “WWE Unreal” clips where Brian was arguing to push Chelsea Green toward the top of the WWE women’s division, and everyone else was saying no.

Well, Brian was right and the rest of them were wrong. He was also right about WWE’s firing of R-Truth. You wonder how many more times Brian was at odds with the rest of the creative team.

But, whatever the reason he left, a real wealth of knowledge and experience just hit the open market.

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