Ronda Rousey is arguably the hottest thing in wrestling right now and it has nothing whatsoever to do with Roddy Piper. She got to be very close with Piper the last few years of his life and I've read they were introduced to each other by martial arts great Gene LeBell, whom at times has trained both Rousey and Piper. LeBell knew Rousey was a huge fan of Piper, he introduced them and a strong friendship emerged.
Sure, Rousey pays homage to Piper via her ring gear and she wears a jacket that Piper gave to her but that's as far as it goes, he even gave her his blessing to use the "Rowdy" name as part of her entrance. When it comes to personas, Rousey and Piper couldn't be more different as Piper was such a loud mouth heel on the mic to such an extreme that he came off as downright manic at times while Rousey is, for the most part, just a straight up ass kicker. She doesn't emulate Piper's mannerisms, she doesn't try to sound like him on the mic, she doesn't evoke his name whenever the opportunity arises.
I mean...there's just nothing to this argument. In the two matches Rousey has worked in WWE, she's gotten a bigger reaction from fans than Piper saw in decades, maybe ever at any point in his career. I'm not saying that to disparage Piper or to suggest that Rousey already "means more" or anything like that, but the Piper connection does give Rousey something of a connection to fans in the sense that they know she's a genuine fan. She's been a passionate wrestling fan pretty much all her life and the Piper inspired ring gear, if anything, helps remind people that she's not just some high priced mercenary that WWE has hired who has no love or passion for wrestling and is only there for a huge paycheck.
