After a number of cameos, including sharing the ring with The Rock, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 31, Ronda Rousey signed with WWE in late 2017.
Her first act as a contracted wrestler came at the 2018 Royal Rumble where she confronted Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka. Her surprise appearance came after the first-ever women’s Royal Rumble match. The star went on to make her in-ring debut at WrestleMania 34 before forming an integral part of WWE’s women’s division.
Rousey’s move to WWE came after a ground-breaking MMA career where she became the first woman signed by UFC. Her star power and rise to championship status made her one of the most famous female combat athletes of all time.
Road Dogg Reflects On WWE Signing Ronda Rousey
Speaking on his podcast, Oh You Didn’t Know, which took a look back at the 2018 Royal Rumble, Road Dogg said that signing Rousey was “smart business.”
“How do you open up those channels to bring in, maybe the lapsed fan that hasn’t watched in a while. Or maybe the fan that hasn’t ever watched, but her [Rousey] popularity brings their eyeballs over to our product and so, yeah, look, bringing Ronda on board is smart business. And I don’t care what anybody thinks about that.”
After teaming with Kurt Angle to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34, Ronda Rousey set her sights on championship gold. This led to her eventually claiming the Raw Women’s Championship at SummerSlam in 2018.
Rousey remained a dominant champion until being defeated by Becky Lynch in a ‘winner take all’ Triple-Threat Match at WrestleMania 35 which also included Charlotte Flair. The former UFC star then took a break from the ring until the 2022 Royal Rumble where she won the women’s Rumble match.
Since then Rousey has won the SmackDown Women’s Championship twice, most recently losing it to Charlotte Flair on the December 30th episode of SmackDown. Rousey is yet to return to the ring and will seemingly miss the Royal Rumble.
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