Despite recent praise by WWE boss Vince McMahon, former MMA star Ronda Rousey’s future with the pro wrestling giant is currently uncertain. After several years of rumors she would join WWE, Rousey officially debuted at the 2018 Royal Rumble, which was already a historic event due to ending with the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble match. Rousey would make her in-ring debut at WrestleMania XXXIV, teaming up with Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle to take on WWE’s resident power couple of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
At SummerSlam 2018, Rousey defeated Alexa Bliss to capture the Raw Women’s Championship, a title which she would dominantly hold until just a few weeks ago at WrestleMania XXXV. Along the way, Rousey laid waste to most of the women’s roster, making short work of people like Bliss, Mickie James, The Riott Squad, and Alicia Fox. Rousey had more of a challenge against her friend Natalya, but still emerged victorious. That was until WrestleMania’s first ever women’s main event match.
A triple threat, the WrestleMania match saw Rousey defend her title against both “The Man” Becky Lynch and “The Queen” Charlotte Flair. Lynch would ultimately pin Rousey, winning both the UFC icon’s title and Flair’s SmackDown Women’s Championship. Since WrestleMania, Rousey has been on hiatus, and it’s not clear when she’ll be back onscreen, despite still being under WWE contract. When asked about Rousey’s rookie year during a recent WWE quarterly earnings call (via SE Scoops), Vince McMahon offered nothing but praise, saying that Rousey brought the entire women’s division up to a new level, to the point that now that she’s gone, the division remains one of the most high-profile aspects of WWE programming.
While it’s no secret that WWE is a scripted form of entertainment, it’s hard to argue with McMahon’s assessment of Rousey’s debut year. Sure, it was WWE’s decision to push her to the moon, but Rousey took that ball and ran with it, consistently making WWE’s women’s division a hot topic. Once Becky Lynch’s revamped character took off too, it was clear that the two stars would end up on a collision course for WrestleMania, albeit with Charlotte Flair ending up thrown into the mix for reasons that still baffle some. Would women have ever main-evented WrestleMania without Rousey’s involvement and mainstream sports star power? One could argue the answer is no. Now, that glass ceiling has been broken, and there will hopefully be other women’s WrestleMania main events in the future.
That all said, Rousey seems to be at a bit of a crossroads currently. She’s made it clear that she soon wants to have a child with husband Travis Browne, and focus on starting a family. Presuming she stays out of the ring until after that happens, that’s at the very least a nine-month period away from WWE, probably longer, as it’s doubtful she plans to give birth and immediately return. Rousey also broke her hand at WrestleMania, and needed to have surgery, which may also play into how long her WWE hiatus ends up being. For now, all fans can do is wait and see.
More: Luke Harper Requests His Release From WWE Contract
Source: SE Scoops
