WWE COO Triple H recently did an interview with Express to promote his WrestleMania 34 match; in which he’ll team up with Stephanie McMahon against the team of Ronda Rousey and Monday Night RAW General Manager Kurt Angle. This will be the first professional wrestling match of Rousey’s career. “The Game” brought up the interesting fact that this will be Stephanie’s first-ever match at WrestleMania:
“This is actually Steph’s first match at WrestleMania,” Triple H said. “The opportunity to step in the ring at WrestleMania with Steph is very exciting, she’s very excited about that opportunity but then to go back in time, so to speak, with Kurt and I … It’s awesome to see Kurt come back after all this time.”
Triple H then discussed how amazing its been to be a part of Rousey’s rise in the WWE, and what it’s going to be like when the four of them step into the ring on “The Grandest Stage Of Them All”:
“And then to step into the ring with probably one of the biggest signings from an outside notoriety standpoint and certainly one of the most amazing signings athletically is the signing of Ronda Rousey,” Triple H responded.
“For her to come in to the WWE, not just as an attraction, not just as somebody coming in and looking for a moment or shine on a different platform, but she really feels like she’s home and that WWE is going to be bigger than anything she’s done in her career and she’s really excited about being here and wanting this.
“To be there as a part of the launch of that, and that’s really what this is, it’s just the opportunity to get her going and to kind of launch what she’s going to bring to the table,” Triple H said.
“It’s really exciting and this will be a special one for a lot of reasons for me and it’s funny because it kind of encapsulates a lot of things for me. My relationship with Steph, my history with Kurt but also a long journey of conversation and everything else with Ronda.”
You can read Triple H’s full interview with Express by clicking this link here.
WWE’s Cathy Kelley was at the Kid’s Choice Awards recently. John Cena was hosting the event and Mike Tyson was also in attendance. Kelley caught up with Tyson to ask him about possibly returning to WWE someday and his thoughts on Ronda Rousey.
“I’m always willing to come back. I love the WWE, yes.” – Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
“I think she’s going to do well”, Tyson said when asked how thinks Ronda Rousey will fare in WWE. Tyson knows what it is like to come in from another sport and be asked to perform at WrestleMania. He played a big role at WrestleMania 14 in the main event between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.
Tyson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.
WWE has released a series of videos featuring former UFC star Ronda Rousey training for her debut match at WrestleMania. The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion is teaming up with fellow Olympian Kurt Angle against WWE executives Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, formerly “The Authority.”
Here are some clips from Rousey’s Friday training session at the WWE Performance Center:
Ronda Rousey is in the unfortunate situation where she doesn’t have much room for error.
The former UFC women’s champion inked a deal to join WWE back in January and made her debut at the Royal Rumble before disappearing off television for several weeks to finish filming a movie in Colombia.
When she returned, Rousey was immediately paired with Kurt Angle over the course of three weeks where she “signed” her contract at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view and then in the two subsequent weeks on Raw, she appeared to set up her WrestleMania 34 match.
Now Rousey will make her in ring debut at the biggest event of the year when she teams with Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed tag team match. With Rousey’s return to television, WWE also promoted that she would be appearing at every Monday Night Raw between Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 34.
There’s only one problem — Rousey has been completely absent from live television the past two weeks outside of a vignette that was shown this past Monday night that talked about her journey from the UFC to joining WWE.
As it turns out, Rousey actually was in Dallas for Raw but she didn’t make any appearance during the live broadcast, but instead came out for a non-televised “dark” segment where she addressed the crowd and then had an incredibly awkward spot with Dana Brooke.
Now no one is going to accuse Dana Brooke of being the best worker in the company but the sequence of moves with Rousey — from the poorly blocked punch to Brooke literally jumping into Rousey’s arms to help her with a suplex — was just terrible execution. She’s only been training for her in-ring debut for a handful of months, so it’s going to take a long time before she’s pulling off moves with fluidity like watching Charlotte Flair take on Sasha Banks.
It seems rather obvious that WWE is giving Rousey a chance to learn on the job with a segment like she had with Dana Brooke this past week, but then that also begs the question — will she truly be ready for WrestleMania in three weeks time?
It’s easy to point at past celebrity appearances for WrestleMania matches — from Mike Tyson to Floyd Mayweather and even President Donald Trump — to know that WWE isn’t exactly banking on them suddenly transforming into A.J. Styles overnight. By that same account, no one expected Kurt Angle or Brock Lesnar to suddenly pick up the business in a matter of days when they first joined the WWE universe.
The difference with both Angle and Lesnar as high level athletes who transitioned into WWE is that they had time to develop in promotions away from the bright lights. Angle worked matches in several developmental promotions before finally being eased into a role on television. Lesnar famously teamed up with Shelton Benjamin as a tag team in Ohio Valley Wrestling and spent two years working in a developmental league before finally being called up to the main WWE roster.
Even fellow UFC veteran Shayna Baszler, who counts Rousey as one of her best friends, spent several years working her way up through the independent circuit before she was given a shot in WWE as part of the “Mae Young Classic” and now she’s still developing as part of the NXT roster.
Meanwhile, Rousey will have none of those luxuries as she prepares for her first match on the biggest stage possible at WrestleMania 34. Chances are Rousey won’t be expected to carry much of the match — what’s more likely is Stephanie McMahon will shy away from Rousey the entire match leaving the bulk of the work to Triple H and Angle. By the end, Rousey will likely find her way into get the tap out and the victory as she officially kicks off her WWE career.
That being said, Rousey’s spots thus far in WWE have been tough to watch.
Her mic work has a lot of room for improvement, but that will come over time. She has an undeniable presence about her, despite the limited emotive range we’ve seen thus far (either a huge grin or her ominous ‘murder face’). Add to that, she’s been awkward with the pair of slams that she’s landed on Stephanie and Dana Brooke in her two more physical altercations in the ring.
The toughest part about those sequences is that no first time wrestler would be expected to pull off those moves flawlessly — but 99.9-percent of first time wrestlers aren’t doing that in front of thousands of people with millions more watching at home on television.
Ronda Rousey making her WWE debut in front of a jam-packed stadium will do big business and draw mainstream headlines. At the end of the day, that’s what this is all about.
However, her room for error as a worker under this bright spotlight is virtually non-existent and the reality is that’s not fair, because it takes years to develop into a good worker. Unfortunately because Rousey undoubtedly signed a lucrative contract to work for WWE, she won’t have the luxury of spending two years working the independent circuit before finally joining the main roster.
It’s a catch 22 situation, but is Rousey being set up for success or failure?
Only time will tell but with three weeks remaining until WrestleMania 34, Rousey will be jumping from the frying pan in the fire in quick fashion and at that point it’s sink or swim.
When it comes to the reaction from savvy professional wrestling fans, there is no third direction.
Are you excited to see Ronda Rousey make her professional wrestling debut at WrestleMania 34 and what do you expect? Sound off in the comments and let us know
Asuka has gone undefeated in WWE competition for about two years now, and the company plans on keeping that streak going for the time being. “The Empress Of Tomorrow” won the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble this past January and recently selected to challenge SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair in New Orleans despite being a RAW Superstar.
This leaves RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss to defend her strap against Nia Jax. Also on the WrestleMania card will be the in-ring debut of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, as she teams with WWE Hall Of Famer and Monday Night RAW General Manager Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. WrestlingNews.co is reporting that WWE has big plans for Rousey and Asuka within the next year. It’s expected that Asuka’s streak will continue on at WrestleMania when she defeats Flair for the SmackDown Live Women’s Title.
Asuka’s streak will be kept alive for the next year leading into WrestleMania 35 in NJ/NY, where Ronda Rousey will challenge the Japanese star. If Rousey is able to be kept ‘special’ by WWE, and Asuka continues to be protected, Rousey vs. Asuka could be the first Women’s match to main event a WrestleMania in WWE history. It was also noted that the match could happen at SummerSlam, however, it would make much more sense as a WrestleMania “dream match.”
WWE has uploaded unseen footage from Monday’s RAW involving Ronda Rousey getting physical with Dana Brooke.
Fans at the arena on Monday night did not see “Woken” Matt Hardy’s Ultimate Deletion. Instead, they got a segment with Elias and after that, Ronda Rousey came out. Rousey was interrupted by Dana Brooke and you can see how that went below.
Rousey is weeks away from her in-ring debut at WrestleMania. The former UFC champion has been training vigorously with WM34 tag team partner ahead of their match against Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.
Check out this footage of Rousey making short work of Brooke.
In this moment you didn’t see on Raw, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey deals with an interruption from Dana Brooke.
Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey spoke with The Kingston-Whig Standard about various topics.
Rousey is set to team up with Kurt Angle to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a Mixed Tag Team Match at WrestleMania 34. During the interview, she was asked about learning to be a pro wrestler.
“Mastering new skills is one of the things that motivates me the most. At first I related it a lot to (movie) stunt work and fight choreography. The more that I get into everything, though they’re very related, it is completely different. I’m completely amazed at what these athletes are really able to do, not just physically, but mentally.
They can make up these entire matches by just talking to each other about it for five minutes — and they barely do anything physical to each other — and then they just walk out and put on these incredible matches. If we were to film the exact same thing for a movie, it would have to have been drilled for six weeks straight and probably have taken about three different takes before we even got one good one. I’m just blown away every day at what everybody in this business is capable of. I’m trying my best to learn. I pride myself on being a great student, but of course it also takes time and it’s hard to learn something from scratch with the whole world watching.”
The latest signee for the sports entertainment company was spearheaded by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, and her husband, Triple H. Since making her official main roster debut at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, the company has put a lot of faith and pressure in making this a top storyline on television.
“I really believe that if and when I apply everything that I have to this industry, I feel like I can be an asset. I’m trying my absolute best and that’s the best I can do and the best that I can do could change the world sometimes. We’ll see what this does.”
“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity. To be honest, sometimes I can’t believe my own life and the stuff that is happening. I really feel like I’m investing every bit of myself into this and I really feel like the company is matching my effort in every way. If I’m pouring every ounce of energy I have into this being a success and they’re doing everything they can to set me up for success, all I can do is go out there and prove them right for believing in me. Yeah, it’s a lot of pressure and probably a crazy and unrealistic amount of pressure to put on someone for their first match ever, but you know what, if anyone in the world can handle it, I believe it can be me.”
A WrestleMania 35 press conference was held on Friday morning at MetLife Stadium. The event featured appearances from Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, Ronda Rousey, John Cena and The New Day.
It was a rather uneventful affair, aside from Triple H noting that Ronda Rousey will be competing at the event. After running down some of her past accomplishments and stating that he hopes Rousey does not injure him or his wife at WrestleMania next month, he introduced Rousey and the two had a brief stare-down.
You can watch the full half-hour WrestleMania 35 press conference below. Triple H and Ronda Rousey’s confrontation occurs around the 24-minute mark of that broadcast.
WWE is in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center for next week’s episode of Monday Night RAW. Former WWE RAW Women’s Champion Bayley recently spoke with SportsDay to promote the upcoming event.
As seen at the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on the WWE Network, Alexa Bliss successfully retained her Raw Women’s Title over Bayley, Mandy Rose, Mickie James, Sonya Deville, and Sasha Banks in the first-ever Women’s Elimination Chamber Match. “Honestly, it’s very intimidating – the structure itself. Being told that we were going to have this match was a little scary. But as weird as it may sound, as soon as I got in the Chamber and the bell rang, I felt really comfortable. It was really fun, but you know, it was just as painful as you’d imagine. But I was just happy I was OK with it mentally when I got in there.”
Since then, WWE has teased tension between Bayley and Banks. During this interview, she was asked about the problems she has with RAW star.
“It’s just a little complicated. Friends and sisters fight all the time, but it’s just – I don’t know – something that I know we have to handle ourselves, and I’m sure we will soon because it’s just been a little awkward.”
“She’s No. 1. For sure. I’ve always said that I think she is the best woman to ever step foot in the ring. And maybe that’s what bothers me sometimes because I want to be the best. But she’s definitely my favorite opponent for many reasons.”
She was also asked about former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey joining the company and potentially wrestling her. Rousey is set to team up with Kurt Angle to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a Mixed Tag Team Match at WrestleMania 34. “Oh, I would love to. Once she’s done with her stuff with Stephanie and Triple H, I would love to be in line – which originally that’s what I’ve been waiting for since she stepped foot in the Mae Young Classic and basically challenged us Four Horsewomen. So, we’re still waiting.” “I don’t really see her much. She’s kind of got her own thing going on, and so do we. But I think she’s fitting in well. The crowds really seem to like having her around, and I think she’s obviously going to fit in well and learn to adapt pretty easy. But she definitely still needs to earn her stripes, I’d say. And I’d be happy to help her.”
Rousey has praised CM Punk in previous interviews and says she’d be honored if she could work with him in WWE one day.
“I think everybody on Earth would love to see [CM Punk] back in WWE, and I would completely fall all over myself and be honored if he wanted to be involved with me in any way, shape or form.”
As much as she (and many wrestling fans) would love to see Punk back in a WWE ring one day, Rousey says it’s Punk’s life and he needs to be passionate about whatever he’s doing. Many people would love for her to fight in UFC again, but she never fought for the fans, she fought because it’s what she loved.
Rousey continued talking about Punk, stating that he had a special gift as a pro wrestler. She’s eager to work with him in WWE, but he’s got her full respect no matter what the future holds for him.
“Everyone in the world knows he has a gift for wrestling and he has something special, and if he ever feels like sharing it with us again, then hell yeah, please, even if it’s not with me, I just hope I’m there to see it. If he never wants to get back in that ring again, he has every reason not to, and all the respect in the world from me.”
Visit our affiliate site MMANews.com for much more on CM Punk’s next fight and all the top stories in UFC and MMA.
In what is arguably the most high-profile match scheduled for WrestleMania, Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey are scheduled to face Triple H & Stephanie McMahon. The 49-year-old Kurt Angle appears to be relishing the opportunity to team with Rousey. After spending years away from WWE, he probably felt he’d never receive another opportunity like this.
Angle posted the following pic of the two training together yesterday:
While rumors state WWE was hoping the Rock would be Rousey’s partner, Angle works too. The Rock as Rousey’s partner would better play up the WrestleMania 31 segment they were involved in but substituting Kurt Angle for anybody is rarely much of a downgrade.
Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey have a shared Olympic history and it makes sense Angle would want to keep Triple H and Stephanie from exploiting her.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey’s schedule with the WWE has been a hot topic as of late.
As seen on this week’s episode of WWE Monday Night RAW in Detroit, MI at the Little Caesars Arena on the USA Network, Ronda Rousey did not appear despite the fact that WWE advertised her appearing on every episode of RAW leading into Wrestlemania 34. Instead, WWE aired a few video packages about her throughout the night.
Then on Tuesday, the sports entertainment company pulled her from advertisements for next week’s RAW in Dallas, Texas and the following week in Cleveland, Ohio. Rousey is scheduled for the April 2nd WrestleMania go-home show.
On Wednesday morning, the WWE has once again advertised Rousey for every RAW TV event leading up to the big event. Rousey is set to team up with Kurt Angle to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a Mixed Tag Team Match at WrestleMania 34.
Here is her updated schedule:
RAW: 3/19 – American Airlines Center, Dallas RAW: 3/26 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland RAW: 4/2 – Philips Arena, Atlanta
Despite previously being announced for all Raw shows leading up to WrestleMania, Ronda Rousey was not on Monday Night Raw last night. WWE did not release an official announcement regarding Rousey not being on the show.
Rousey did appear on the Ellen Show this morning, however. The Ellen Show films in Los Angeles and Raw was from Detroit last night.
Rousey explained to Ellen why she made the change to pro-wrestling and how she learned her “mean mug”.
Ronda Rousey on Ellen and Not Raw
It’s possible the Ellen Show reached out to Rousey and WWE last minute about the appearance. The company may have felt the Ellen appearance would bring in more mainstream media attention to WrestleMania than Rousey appearing on Raw would. That is just speculation, however.
WWE Raw star Sonya Deville recently made an appearance on longtime WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia’s podcast, Chasing Glory, to talk about various topics.
During the interview, she was asked about a potential match with former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who is slated to team up with WWE Hall of Famer and current General Manager of Monday Night Raw Kurt Angle to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a Mixed Tag Team Match at WrestleMania 34.
“I haven’t actually said anything publicly about it yet…I feel like the story me and Ronda can tell one day will be so awesome, and I think we have something special here…I think that it’s going to be an honor and a privilege to work in the ring with her…That’s the biggest compliment, is that Ronda Rousey – she’s done a lot in her life. She’s accomplished a lot. Besides MMA and the UFC, she was a Judo Olympian. She was a bronze medalist. And she went undefeated for so long, and she has a lot of accomplishments. So, for her to want to be here so bad, to go through contract negotiations for as long as they did with her, and to finally be here, that is such a compliment to our division and what we’re doing here.”
Also during this interview, she was asked about being the first openly gay women in the WWE.
“I guess I put a big burden on myself because I want to send out the right message and I want to talk about it properly, and I do want to make sure that people hear my story because I think that it’s an interesting one that can help a lot of people. I get tweets and stuff. I tear up now just thinking about it. This little girl the other day was tweeting me – her name’s Courtney – and telling me that she came out to her family because she read my post and everything. I gave her the courage…that’s the kind of influence I want to have. It’s not just being gay. It’s just being you.”
TMZ Sports uploaded a video in which they caught up with WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz and his wife Maryse. Miz was asked about how the thinks Ronda Rousey has done in WWE thus far. Rousey recently picked Stephanie McMahon to be her opponent at WrestleMania 34. She will team with Kurt Angle against McMahon and Triple H after Stephanie slapped her at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (PPV) and Triple H sucker punched Angle on RAW.
Miz said that Rousey is doing a good job on WWE TV thus far despite picking the wrong people to mess with in Stephanie and Triple H:
“I think so. So far she’s getting a great reaction out of the crowd, and that’s what it’s all about. But I think she’s messing with the wrong people in Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.”
As far as Rousey’s in-ring work, Miz can’t really comment on it as he hasn’t seen “The Rowdy One” in the ring and doesn’t know where or who she was training with:
“Form as in being in WWE – transitioning from the WWE – I haven’t seen her do anything in the WWE yet, as in her wrestling. In UFC she’s incredible, she’s one of the baddest women on the planet. In WWE, it’s a completely different art and I haven’t seen her train in the ring yet. I’m not down – wherever she’s training, I haven’t been there, so I haven’t seen it.”
Miz was also asked what Rousey should name her signature Armbar in WWE:
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about that – “Baddest Armbar On The Planet?”
Ronda Rousey is undoubtedly one of the most gifted athletes in all of sports but that doesn’t mean she’s suddenly going to become one of the most prolific talkers now that she’s part of the WWE roster.
Through her first few appearances in WWE during the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view as well as the past two weeks on Monday Night Raw, it’s been noted that Rousey appears to be very nervous when speaking on the microphone when her segments opposite Stephanie McMahon have taken place.
Rousey was never one to hold her tongue during her UFC career when she was a six-time defending champion but talking to a group of reporters versus thousands of people in attendance in any given arena are two totally different things.
“You have to put yourself in the most uncomfortable situations and make them comfortable.” ~ Alexa Bliss
WWE Raw women’s champion Alexa Bliss offered some advice for Rousey when speaking to ESPN about her struggles on the microphone thus far.
“It took me forever to get comfortable,” Bliss said. “When I first started NXT, we had promo classes, and I used to get so upset because I couldn’t get in front of a crowd and talk. I was terrified. Actually, our referee Shawn Bennett was just talking about my first promo class. I stood up there and started crying because I was really embarrassed to be in front of a large group and speaking.
“I performed in front of large crowds before, but I never had to speak in front of them, so it’s just one of those things you have to keep doing and doing. You have to put yourself in the most uncomfortable situations and make them comfortable.”
Bliss has come a long way for her promos including the huge reaction she received after speaking at Elimination Chamber a couple of weeks ago.
Obviously, WWE is easing Rousey into her new role with the company, which is why she’s being paired alongside a seasoned veteran like Kurt Angle for most of her segments as well as her first match at WrestleMania 34.
Only time will tell if Rousey will get more comfortable on the microphone or she might just become the silent killer who says less and does more.
Tommy Dreamer Not A Fan Of Ronda Rousey’s Samoan Drop
Ronda Rousey’s WWE signing has garnered a significant amount of mainstream media attention. The once dominant UFC women’s bantamweight champion is making the transition to pro wrestling. She hasn’t wrestled a match yet, but she has been cutting promos on Monday Night Raw and even at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
Last night (March 5) Rousey announced who her WrestleMania opponent will be. She chose Stephanie McMahon. Rousey will team with Kurt Angle to take on Stephanie and Triple H at the “Greatest Spectacle In Sports Entertainment.” The segment ended with Rousey planting Stephanie with a Samoan Drop.
ECW legend Tommy Dreamer took to Twitter to offer Rousey some advice on how to execute the move properly:
Speaking of Raw, WWE has released their top ten moments from the latest episode. There was a ton of stuff to stew over this week’s edition of Raw. From Bayley refusing to embrace Sasha Banks, to Finn Balor and Seth Rollins pummeling The Miz. Don’t forget about Asuka continuing her dominance by forcing Nia Jax to tap out. Those and more are highlighted in the top ten Raw moments:
– Last night after Monday Night RAW went off-air on the USA Network, the dark main event of the evening saw Roman Reigns defeat Kane in singles competition.
– WWE made the following announcement to congratulate RAW Superstar Ronda Rousey on getting inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame this past weekend:
Ronda Rousey inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame at the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival USA
Ronda Rousey sure knows how to cap off a week! After officially signing her contract with the Raw brand and shockingly slamming Triple H through a table, Rousey found herself in Columbus, Ohio for her induction into the International Sports Hall of Fame during the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival. “Rowdy” Ronda was inducted alongside MMA legend Bas Rutten, host of “The Amazing Race” Phil Keoghan and acclaimed world powerlifting champions Dr. Terry Todd and Dr. Jan Todd.
Rousey also received her sixth degree black belt, while her mother, legendary judoka AnnMaria De Mars, received her seventh during the festival. Rousey took to Instagram to show gratitude for the amazing honors.
The festival, presented by WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzennegger, was founded in Columbus in 1989. The Arnold Sports Festival now features more than 18,000 athletes from 80 nations competing in 70 sports and events.
Also in attendance was Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, who posed for photos with Rousey and his daughter, Sophia, who he calls “Little Ronda.”
WWE.com congratulates Rousey on this incredible accomplishment.
– After his loss to John Cena on RAW last night, Goldust did an interview with Mike Rome in which he praised “The Leader Of The Cenation.” Goldust said possibly defeating Cena would allow him to point to the WrestleMania sign and punch his ticket for “The Show Of Shows.” Unfortunately for “Goldy,” that didn’t happen:
WWE announced on Monday that “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey will be appearing at every episode of Monday Night RAW through WrestleMania 34 on April 8th.
Rousey will be making “special appearances” on WWE RAW on the following dates:
3/5 – BMO Harris Bradley Center, Milwaukee
3/12 – Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
3/19 – American Airlines Center, Dallas
3/26 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland
4/2 – Philips Arena, Atlanta
Rousey has already signed on to make her WWE debut at WrestleMania. While her opponent(s) have not yet been confirmed, it’s expected that she will be teaming up with Kurt Angle against Stephanie McMahon and Triple H in a mixed tag team match.
Tonight Monday Night RAW will be live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and fans are wondering whether or not Ronda Rousey will be on WWE TV this week to further her storyline with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. PWInsider is reporting that Rousey is in Milwaukee and will be on tonight’s episode of RAW. Rousey made her WWE debut back at the Royal Rumble this past January after the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match.
After Asuka won the match, Rousey came out to confront “The Empress Of Tomorrow,” RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, and SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair. She pointed at the WrestleMania 34 sign and indicated her intentions to wrestle at the event. Rousey’s next WWE appearance came at Elimination Chamber where she signed her RAW contract with General Manager Kurt Angle, WWE COO Triple H, and RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon.
Angle suggested that “The Game” and Stephanie were manipulating Rousey because of their incident with her at WrestleMania 31, which led to “The Rowdy One” putting Triple H through a table. Stephanie slapped Rousey in retaliation before fleeing the ring. The next night on RAW the four seemed to clear the air after several apologies, but Triple H sucker-punched Angle before leaving the ring to end the show. It’s rumored Rousey and Angle will team up at WrestleMania 34 against Stephanie and Triple H in a Mixed Tag match.
Tonight will likely further the foursome’s storyline heading into “The Showcase Of The Immortals.”
Ronda Rousey is expected to team up with Monday Night RAW General Manager and WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 34 to take on the team of WWE COO Triple H and RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon. That match has been set up in the past few weeks at Elimination Chamber and on RAW. During Rousey’s RAW contract signing at Elimination Chamber, Rousey put Triple H through a table after Angle noted that he and Stephanie had been manipulating her.
The next night on RAW the four seemed to clear the air after several apologies, however, Triple H hit Angle with a cheap shot before leaving the ring to end the show. It’s expected that the feud between the four will continue to develop on tonight’s episode of RAW from Milwaukee. Kurt Angle and Triple H are expected to work most of the Mixed Tag match at WrestleMania.
It’s also expected that the entire match is going to be mapped out move-for-move with Angle and Hunter carrying most of the load, building up to spots between Stephanie and Ronda. There has also been some speculation as of late as to whether or not Rousey’s husband, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, would be her partner instead to make the match more of a husband and wife storyline.
Browne has also been training alongside Rousey inside the ring. WWE decided not to go that route as it would leave Triple H to carry the match with three inexperienced in-ring performers on the biggest show of the year.
There has been, and will be, a lot of talk around Ronda Rousey before she makes her in-ring debut as an official WWE superstar, with many offering their opinions on the UFC Champion’s potential in the world of sports entertainment.
Since Rousey was seen slamming Triple H through a table at Elimination Chamber, WWE Hall of Famer DDP spoke to UPI.com.
“I think she’ll put the work in, she’ll have to. Because it’s completely different from UFC. I think Ronda brings a lot. She really put women’s sports at the top of the list. She’s the main event. If you look back…there is no way there is ever going to be women’s fighting in UFC. She had a whole different vision. Not too many years after that she was headlining the main event. It really put her in a huge spot. And she had a great career. And I’m sure she’s pretty much moved on from that and she’s on to the next one.”
Diamond Dallas Page explained that it may not happen straight away, and she may not be unbelievable, but he stated that he thinks she’ll hold her own in the ring.
“Again, wrestling is all about believability, Believing in the character.”
“That’s why I think she’ll be successful. Do I think it’s going to take some time? You know I do. If you go back to her run in the UFC, it was almost Tyson-esque. It’s the same thing that Mike did coming in and boxing. She did it with tapouts.”
“She comes with a rep and it’s a good one […] Look what women’s sports are doing today. We’d probably never see any of these amazing fighters in the UFC. WWE, the girls there are serious. She has some great talent there and they aren’t there to hurt her.”
Along with DDP, The Big Show also spoke with UPI.com about Ronda’s new career in sports entertainment.
“You can tell she’s excited about our business and what we do […] As far as the brand the notoriety she brings to our industry, I think it’s an incredible opportunity for WWE and WWE fans as well as Ronda Rousey fans.”
The world’s largest athlete highlighted her presence, athletic ability, and entertainment skills as things to watch out for, stating that ‘she’s just going to be overwhelming’.
“It’s going to raise the bar a little bit in our women’s division. Our women’s division is the strongest it has ever been. It’s so strong, it has actually attracted the talent like Ronda Rousey to want to come and be a part of it….I think it’s absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to see what she does in the ring.”
Opinion:
Is anyone else slightly concerned about the amount of pressure being built up? There’s a lot at stake for her and WWE. I know that she’s a professional of course, and will have gone through as much training as possible, but surely there’s still a chance that this all flops?
– Finn Balor, who was advertised for last night’s WWE live event in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the Wings Event Center, ended up missing the show due to travel issues.
Balor sent out a tweet apologizing for missing the show as his flight was canceled due to weather. He sent out the tweet at 1:53 p.m. while on a plane to tonight’s show in Chicago, Illinois.
– After signing her Raw contract last Sunday at WWE Elimination Chamber, Ronda Rousey has been added to the Raw Superstars page on WWE.com. In the profile, WWE bills Rousey at 5’7″ and says her signature maneuver is the armbar.
– Courtesy of the WWE Network, here is a clip from WWE Countdown on Hawk and Animal, The Legion of Doom.
– After officially signing her contract with the Raw brand and slamming Triple H through a table last Sunday at WWE Elimination Chamber, Ronda Rousey was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame at the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival USA today in Columbus, Ohio.
Rousey was inducted alongside MMA legend Bas Rutten, The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, and world powerlifting champions Dr. Terry Todd and Dr. Jan Todd.
Raw General Manager Kurt Angle was also in attendance.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf3oERbBRnE/
The festival, presented by WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzennegger, was founded in 1989.
– Here is Triple H’s latest “Midnight Workout” video.
– WWE is celebrating National Anthem Day today with this clip of former ring announcer Lilian Garcia kicking off the 15th annual WWE Tribute to the Troops from Naval Base San Diego with a performance of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Ronda Rousey continues to train for her professional wrestling debut inside the WWE ring. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Rousey was training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando last week. Prior to making her official WWE debut at the Royal Rumble this past January, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne had reported that Rousey was training at the WWE Performance Center late at night and very few people were in the know.
We also previously reported that Rousey was at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut this past week for business meetings. Meltzer reports that Rousey has been training with WWE coaches Norman Smiley and Sara Amato, WWE NXT Superstar and one of Rousey’s best friends Shayna Baszler, MMA Four Horsewomen member Jessamyn Duke (who had previously ceased her professional wrestling training for a brief period of time), and NXT’s Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler. It was also reported that Rousey’s husband, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, has also been training inside the ring for the past several months.
There are mixed reports going around as to whether or not Browne will be wrestling as well. Rousey’s first match in a WWE ring is expected to take place at WrestleMania 34. She’s rumored to be teaming with RAW General Manager Kurt Angle against the team of WWE COO Triple H and RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon.