Ronda Rousey might make WWE History.
It hasn’t exactly been kept under wraps that Ronda Rousey has been hard at work training to make the leap from the UFC to the WWE. The former women’s bantamweight champion has regularly featured footage of her training with WWE divas like Natalya Hart on her blog and has even shot a little promo material for the WWE alongside her fellow Horsewomen (which includes former UFC fighter-turned-NXT-signee Shayna Baszler) to hype her upcoming debut. Beyond that, however, little else has materialized in regards to when and/or what to expect from the “Rowdy” one in the squared circle.
Until now, that is.
EXCLUSIVE: @MsCharlotteWWE @itsBayleyWWE & @BeckyLynchWWE cross paths w/ @RondaRousey @MarinaShafir & @jessamynduke at the #MaeYoungClassic! pic.twitter.com/Ipc7YW5nv2
— WWE (@WWE) September 4, 2017
According to the Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer, the WWE might very well be prepping Rousey as a surprise entrant in its first ever women’s Royal Rumble, which was announced by Stephanie McMahon on Monday night’s edition of Raw.
“[There’s been] a lot of Ronda Rousey talk. If she’s in it, she’d better win,” said Meltzer, echoing McMahon’s recent claim that the WWE was in “the finalizing stages” of Rousey’s contract.
Co-host Bryan Alvarez also spoke to the rumors, saying that it “made perfect sense” for Rousey to debut during such an event, which would eventually set her up for a fight with current women’s contender Asuka (who’s finisher just so happens to be an armbar).
It makes perfect sense. And the other thing is that if she is in the Royal Rumble, she can be in the ring for a while and she can be protected, because you can have other people do a lot of the wrestling for her, and all that. So that gives her a couple more months of training, [and WWE] gets to use her name [to promote WrestleMania].”
“And again, I don’t know [for sure] she’s in the Royal Rumble. I do know that some of the competitors that are in there are under the impression that she’s in. I do know that she’s been training a lot, but that was known for months. Obviously, the original idea was the Four Horsewomen vs. the Four Horsewomen, and that would be the debut. So we’ll see. But it’s certainly a rumor going around, that’s for sure.”
Rouse has yet to shed any light on the rumors, but it would probably be okay to assume that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In any case, having Rousey debut at the Rumble against some legitimate WWE stars is certainly a better plan than having her fight Cris Cyborg at Wrestlemania.
