All indications point to Ronda Rousey going out with honor if she is in the midst of her final ride with WWE.
The entire audience was caught off guard when Shayna Baszler betrayed her at Money in the Bank 2023. There had been no teases of tension prior to that, and it appeared their reign as WWE Women’s Tag Team champions was just beginning.
A feud pitting the two against each other had always been envisioned as Rousey’s swan song from the company with an undisclosed “hard out” planned for her, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
She has done it all in WWE, from starring at WrestleMania to winning multiple titles to now working with her best friend.
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In 2022, Rousey’s return to the Royal Rumble should have been more special than it was. The crowd in St. Louis reacted resoundingly to her return after nearly three years away, and she won the women’s Rumble, but her momentum was immediately slowed by being miscast as a babyface.
She jumped ship to SmackDown instead of rekindling her rivalry with Becky Lynch and giving fans the marquee match they were deprived of in 2019. The idea could have been to revisit their feud at a later date, but they never crossed paths again following their one encounter on the post-Rumble Raw.
It didn’t matter if it was their lackluster promos or their disappointing match at WrestleMania, Rousey vs. Flair failed to impress. Despite winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship from Flair at Backlash, Rousey’s follow-up was awful.
Rousey had a forgettable second stint as SmackDown Women’s champ, her matches were hit or miss, and her character wasn’t consistently defined.
With all of these blunders, her stock in the eyes of the audience plummeted and she no longer felt like an attraction. Today, she feels like just another member of the roster.
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While The Rowdy One is not the dominant force on either SmackDown or Raw right now, more consistency would have helped establish her as a force to be reckoned with, Her original run was handled similarly.
In spite of the fact that Rousey is still a notable name in the women’s scene, it isn’t hard to see why she may be ready to move on from wrestling.
In the past few years, Lynch has competed in all three of WWE’s major women’s championships, as well as a Royal Rumble. The ship has sailed with Lynch and she doesn’t have much else to do now that her and Baszler’s tag title reign has ended.
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She should only focus on elevating Baszler to the best of her ability and getting her back to her NXT roots as a one-woman wrecking crew as she prepares to leave the promotion.
Unlike Rousey, Baszler had to work her way up through WWE’s developmental system before finally moving to the main roster in early 2020.
The biggest difference between her and Rousey is that Rousey is able to sustain bad bookings because of her pop culture presence pre-WWE.
Anyone who saw her decorated NXT run knows Baszler isn’t a perennial tag team player.
With this rivalry with Rousey, Baszler has the chance to cement herself as an actual singles star. However, the aftermath would certainly be crucial, as she could potentially fade into irrelevance once Rousey leaves.
Her squash against Emma on Raw was met with a tepid reaction because WWE hasn’t made it clear who the babyface is in the feud.
She is willing to elevate others when necessary and recognizes that certain competitors should be featured more than they are. Throughout her WWE career, this has been Rousey’s greatest strength.
Eventually, Raquel Rodriguez, as well as Liv Morgan, were a consequence of her rivalry last year. Due to being a polarizing figure with fans based on comments she’s made in the past (among other reasons), she doesn’t get enough credit for her efforts in fostering the talent of tomorrow.
Her impressive accolades and influence on the women’s division early on make her a sure-fire WWE Hall of Fame inductee someday (but not too soon).
The way Rousey has built up to this potentially final farewell with Baszler at SummerSlam indicates that she intends to close out her career on a high note.
