AEW star Ruby Soho has opened about about what made her love sharing the ring with former UFC star Ronda Rousey.
After stepping away from the octagon, Ronda Rousey made her in-ring WWE debut at WrestleMania 34, teaming with Kurt Angle to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. After the match, Rousey ascended to the top of the RAW women’s division, claiming the Women’s Championship at SummerSlam.
Heading into Elimination Chamber in early 2019, Rousey found herself wrapped up in a rivalry with Ruby Riott, now Ruby Soho, as she marched towards the main event of WrestleMania.
Ahead of the event, the pair squared off at three house shows fine tuning their match for the big stage. However, by the time the big day rolled around, the two Superstars found their time had been cut.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Soho praised Rousey before recalling her disappointment at how the match ended up.
“She’s awesome. She gave me one of my favourite matches while I was there. She’s one of those people who is incredibly humble when she does not know a lot about what she is in at the moment. But she is a sponge and picks up things super fast. She has amazing instincts and she is awesome. We had a match at Elimination Chamber and we were on the house shows prior to that. She and I had this match that we were super proud of and really excited to do. We got to the show and we had the time that we thought, but a few minutes later we were told it’s going to be 2 minutes, Ronda taps Ruby out. It was that moment of [sighs] OK. But I knew the story wasn’t about me, it was leading into WrestleMania and the Women’s main event.”
Continuing on, Soho revealed that Rousey campaigned for the pair to have a rematch the next night on RAW.
“But I was so excited about that match, it was just a beautiful melody of our 2 styles. I wanted to approach her in the way of I don’t want to be put in a hold, because then I tap and I’m done. I love that challenge of looking at her. I asked her what are all the things I can do to you that are not legal in MMA? She was like headbutts etc. So that was all I could do. But I was so bummed. Next thing I know, Ronda went in and rallied for that match to happen the next night on RAW. She went and she said ‘I always have a title defence the night after a pay per view, and I want it to be Ruby. She rallied for me and that night we were the main event of RAW. The match went well and was one of my favourite matches there. I loved working with her.”
After the match on RAW, Rousey continued her journey to WrestleMania where she lost her RAW Women’s Championship to Becky Lynch. Rousey left WWE after the defeat, but has continually been linked with a return.
In June, Rousey and her husband Travis Browne revealed that they are expecting a baby girl.
Ruby Soho remained with WWE until being released by the company on June 2nd 2021. The star returned to action with AEW at All Out on September 5th. Appearing as the ‘Joker’ entrant in the Women’s Casino Battle Royale, Soho powered her way to victory, earning a showdown with Women’s Champion Britt Baker.
It has since been announced that Soho will meet Baker at AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam on September 22nd.
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