Ronda Rousey's AMA on r/SquaredCircle: A Complete Meltdown Over Sandy Hook Questions

Ronda Rousey, the former MMA champion and WWE superstar, recently hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on the popular wrestling subreddit, r/SquaredCircle. The event, however, quickly spiraled out of control, becoming a complete debacle and a case study of how not to engage with an online community.

Peter (manifesting a beard) (@DDPeter_) took to Twitter to share the aftermath, posting a screenshot that has since gone viral with over 1.2 million views. In his tweet, Peter highlighted the essence of the chaos: "Ronda Rousey hosted an AMA on r/SquaredCircle. She was asked 400+ questions. They were all about her denial of the Sandy Hook m****cre. She didn’t answer a single question. The AMA ended. This is my favorite question."

The Reddit comment that Peter referred to, posted by user P7AC3B0, reads: "F*** ON ME! I'd heard rumors that WWE had pitched an angle to repackage you as a pirate character, the descendant of a well-known swashbuckler. Supposedly you shot this down. Did you deny it because your gimmick was going to be 'Sandy Hook?'"

The wrestling fans on r/SquaredCircle were relentless, tearing into Rousey for her controversial stance on the Sandy Hook tragedy. Comments flooded in, calling her out for attempting to leverage a Kickstarter campaign to fund a comic book while being a millionaire herself. Users also criticized her for retweeting a video that suggested Sandy Hook was a conspiracy, labeling it as "interesting."

One Redditor remarked, "Folks, this post is so much funnier than you even realize. She showed up in the pro wrasslin subreddit and the wrestling fans absolutely decimated her." Another commented, "Do some of these marketing/PR people have absolutely no idea how the internet works? How else did they expect an AMA on Reddit to go?"

The AMA quickly became a spectacle of its own. Some users pointed out that Rousey did answer a few questions, but they were "softballs" and were massively downvoted by the community. The backlash was intense, with many expressing their disdain for her past actions and attitudes.

In an era where celebrities and public figures often turn to social media to connect with their fans, Ronda Rousey's AMA on r/SquaredCircle serves as a cautionary tale. Engaging with a community requires not just openness but also an understanding of the audience's sentiments and history.

As one user aptly put it, "Squared circle don't play." And indeed, they didn't. Ronda Rousey's AMA ended in a social media disaster, leaving her reputation further tarnished and providing a moment of reflection for other public figures considering similar engagements.