One WWE Legend has dubbed the “Ronda Rousey Experiment” as “over”, after reports of her match with Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania now off.
UFC Legend Ronda Rousey recently held the Smackdown Women’s Championship for a number of months, after taking the belt from Liv Morgan in 2022. However, she lost her title on the last Smackdown of the year on December 30th when a returning Charlotte Flair beat her in an impromptu match to earn her 14th world title.
Rousey had just handily defeated challenger Raquel Rodriguez when Flair made her long-awaited return to win the title. It was the 14th time she had held a women’s world championship (15th if you count her NXT reigns, which WWE does intermittently), leaving her just two shy of her fathers record of 16, which he holds alongside John Cena.
This loss looks to put an end to the idea of Ronda Rousey as a top star in the WWE. During her first run she absolutely was, putting on amazing matches all the way from her debut (a mixed tag team match with Kurt Angle, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon) to her final outing in the main event of Wrestlemania (losing to Becky Lynch in a match also featuring Charlotte Flair). She was regarded as one of the most popular wrestlers in the company, and her leaving to have children once she lost her title was a big loss for the company.
During this time, she never had a one-on-one match with Becky Lynch. Lynch is one of the most popular wrestlers in WWE history, and the two seemed destined to do battle agaisnt one another. They were meant to wrestle at Survivor Series 2018, but an injury caused by Nia Jax (who was later fired by the company) forced Lynch out of the bout. They were also set up for a match in the main event of Wrestlemania 35, after “The Man” had won the Royal Rumble and challenged for Rousey’s Raw Women’s Championship.
However, Charlotte was bafflingly added to the match to make it a triple threat for both women’s titles – as she had defeated Asuka for Smackdown’s version of the belt. The first ever women’s Wrestlemania main event saw “Becky Two-Belts” reign supreme, while fans eagerly awaited a singles match between the two women.
However, it now seems that the potential match between Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey is off. WWE Legend and outspoken podcast veteran Jim Cornette seems to think that the “Rousey Experiment” is over and that Charlotte Flair is the true star out of the duo. Speaking on his podcast, he said;
“If Ronda Rousey did not have the name and reputation that she had from the MMA world or UFC, she wouldn’t be on television. There Charlotte’s a star and then there’s Ronda.”
“Hopefully, is this the end of the Rousey experiment? Ronda Rousey wanted to be a wrestler until she got a little taste of it. She wasn’t even a full-time wrestler. The first run, okay. Then she goes to have kids and raise goats. And I’m not even kidding folks, look it up.”
It is currently unknown who Becky, Charlotte or Ronda will face at Wrestlemania 39.