Cup of coffee in the big time: This ‘worked shoot’ isn’t going well

Watching the latest round in the ongoing “Twitter beef” between Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch yesterday was every bit like watching a car crash and being unable to look away.

Yes, it’s become commonplace for Lynch to dominate these written exchanges. There was little surprise in how things played out if you were “keeping score,” but Rousey going off the deep end with the absolute worst type of “worked shoot” got embarrassing quickly.

First, there was Rousey going after the mug shots:

Now, I guess you could say Rousey pushed up to the line here. The mugshots were posted by Lynch so ... maybe we could all play along with the “fake” thing.

But given she was “arrested” on TV, it’s probably for the good of the story to play along.

But then came the armbar:

This is where it went off the rails.

Rousey has already had to sell this armbar. What benefit is there to launching into a tirade about how it “doesn’t actually work?”

We all know pro wrestling has its own logic (see: Irish whips) and poking holes in moves — especially moves you’ve had to sell as working — seems like it’d just be shooting yourself in the foot.

This is doubly true when Rousey has one of the worst worked armbars in wrestling (she bends the elbow the way it naturally bends!), which remains a total bummer given she has one of the best actual armbars in the world.

Despite some rumors WWE was unhappy with the tossing around of “fake,” Dave Meltzer said everything was being done with approval, which is even more ludicrous if true.

I’m not a purist by any means. Wrestling is fake. We all know it’s fake.

Drumming up some sort of doubt about whether the “heat” between two wrestlers is real can be a fun way to get attention even if most worked shoots are miserable failures.

Rousey’s final line threatening to “beat the living shit out of” Lynch regardless of the script was a far better line in getting there than going all Vince Russo with the “these moves are fake” thing.

Honestly, if you replace the fake armbar nonsense with Rousey saying something about Lynch being careless and dangerous with the crutch shots that opened her up, you could potentially start to blur the line between whether Rousey might actually want to “beat the living shit” out of Lynch.

Regardless of who was behind the decision to go this direction, it crossed into the realm of simply being cringeworthy rather than intense and confrontational.

And, yes, it got people talking. But probably not the way they wanted.

• There was an injury that may have caused some Raw rewrites.
• Matt Hardy has explained why he was not Woken in his return as only Matt Hardy could.
• The staff debated what to do with Roman Reigns now that he has returned.
• Meanwhile, Reigns is advertised to be wrestling at Fastlane.
• Kofi Kingston is still really bummed out.
• Davey Richards pulled a real Davey Richards move.
• Sasha and Bayley were happy to be remembered.

Fridays are the best!