Ronda Rousey made her return on Saturday night and won the women’s Royal Rumble match.
It was Rousey’s first match since WrestleMania 35 in April 2019 as she entered the match in the #28 position and won after eliminating SmackDown women’s champion Charlotte Flair last.
After the match, there was a stare-down between Rousey and Flair. Earlier in the day, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that it’s the direction for WrestleMania.
The women’s Rumble match lasted almost one hour and featured many stars from the past, most of whom were announced in advance although there were several unannounced surprises.
It was the fifth women’s Royal Rumble, which became an annual part of the Royal Rumble beginning in 2018.
I know a lot of people wanted Bianca Belair to win. I did too. Not looking forward to all of the calls and written feedback complaining about this when Ronda’s entry made the finish a done deal.
For me I just wish they let someone other than Charlotte be in the final 2. Give someone the Charlotte elimination so they get something and set up a challenger for her because unless we are going with another Triple threat the Rhonda story is with Becky.
Really? I assumed the Mania Woman’s Main Events were going to be Charlotte vs Ronda and Bianca vs Becky. Booking tonight seemed to hint towards that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right.
So they’re either doing Charlotte vs Ronda again, while never doing the actually money match with Ronda vs Becky. Or they do Ronda vs Becky, and then Bianca gets that Rhea Ripley, “just let the story play out”, treatment. This company is silly
In all the hype of Ronda returning, I honeslty forgot Charlotte was a champion and literally assumed the match was already Becky vs. Ronda. If they don’t go with Becky vs. Ronda, I can see the match being absolutely panned by fans online, and it losing the audience.
Ronda as a babyface vs Becky the heel I think would lead to the same result. Bianca’s entire storyline right now is that she got screwed over by Becky, and the natural conclusion to that story is her overcoming Becky on the big stage. If you put Ronda against Becky, I feel Bianca will become Bryan to Ronda’s Roman and Ronda will be boo’d out of the building.
Charlotte has nothing going on right now, it makes more sense to me to have her face Ronda and then save Becky/Ronda for down the road. AEW has shown that if you wait to do the big match it means so much more (yes, I know we arent talking AEW here, but you get my point).
What’s the bigger match though. Becky and Ronda or Bianca finally beating Becky.
As with Hangman and Kenny, they did delay and it still was a big deal because of Hangman’s story. If Bianca has that story going she’ll be over no matter what. Especially if Becky beats Ronda and Bianca beats an ever more obnoxious Becky.
I guess it depends on how much they think their fans remember. The built in story has always been Becky and Becky banned Ronda her only loss, so that would be the direction I would go. But then I wouldn’t have turned Becky heel when she came back. So maybe they are going with the route with minimal story because they want to have Charlotte for the match. Unfortunately I think the whole thing will diminish their women’s roster as they have been doing since the build to the first Ronda mania main event build.
Agreed. Problem is the heel/face dynamic. I think you could go Ronda vs Becky if Becky was a face, as the fans would totally buy Ronda as a heel. Problem now, is to do the match you either do a babyface Ronda who will get boo’d, or you turn Becky 5 months after her heel turn.
It it were me, I’d put Ronda on SD, have her feud with Charlotte and then wait until next year once Becky finishes up this heel run and at next years mania do a babyface Becky vs a heel Ronda. I would also plant seeds over the next year to slowly build to the match. If done correctly, this match could be huge.
At this stage, not sure if WWE should try to fight any type of reaction the crowd gives Ronda. Go with what they give her. At worst, she’ll be a tweener.
The thing is, if you go Becky vs Bianca, they will get their desired reaction (ie. Becky as a heel and Bianca as a face), and if they go Ronda vs Charlotte, they will also get the reaction they desire. Going Becky vs Ronda is the one combination that will go the exact opposite of what they are going for.
Does Vince care? Maybe not, and maybe you’re right about them not caring at this point. However, that’s not going to change my opinion of what they should do as nothing I have said is about what I think will happen, its about what I want to happen.
Ronda and Becky
Bianca Sasha and Charlotte on the show
And doesn’t matter who is heel or face. These women should hate each other and this should feel like a huge return match. Heels and faces don’t matter. Crowd should be hot regardless and let them turn one of them whichever way they want. Wwe can ignore it or go with it after. Ronda vs Becky is a rivalry we never got a singles match for. It’s marquee. Two moms. All the PR.
Not doing it now means further messy booking to get there / inevitably waters down the match and story between them.
Well can they be more quiet than on raw? They pumped noise in for the Ronda Becky segment which made me care less than a Leyla Hirsch vs. Red Velvet feud.