Ronda Rousey WrestleMania Opponent: Stephanie McMahon, Charlotte Are Options For WWE Match
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The initial questions regarding Ronda Rousey’s WWE debut have been answered. Now, it’s time to figure out who she’ll be facing at WrestleMania 34.
The former UFC champion appeared at the 2018 Royal Rumble, but she didn’t compete in the women’s battle royal. Rousey described herself as a “full-time” WWE superstar in an interview with ESPN, though her first match might not come until April 8 in New Orleans.
When it comes to Rousey’s WrestleMania opponent, there are a few candidates, namely all three of the wrestlers that she confronted Sunday night in Philadelphia. Rousey stared down Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair and women’s Royal Rumble winner Asuka before pointing to the WrestleMania sign.
Asuka rejected Rousey’s attempt at a handshake. Could that be a sign Rousey will have a WrestleMania match with the undefeated Japanese star? Not likely, considering Asuka has the choice to challenge for one of WWE’s women’s titles.
Maybe Rousey will go after Bliss’ title. Afterall, it makes much more sense to put WWE’s biggest signee in quite some time on their flagship program, where Bliss has been the champion for nearly half a year straight.
If Rousey is going to fight for a title at WrestleMania, Charlotte would be her most logical opponent. Having been the top performer since WWE’s “Women’s Revolution,” Charlotte has already established herself as one of the greatest female wrestlers in the company’s history. Ric Flair’s daughter against one of the biggest draws in UFC history is a match that WWE would love to put on their biggest show of the year.
But Rousey might not be quite ready to have a singles match for a title on WWE’s grandest stage. It was less than six months ago that Fightful.com reported Rousey expressed her interest to WWE in starting professional wrestling training.
Dave Meltzer reported for MMA Fighting that WWE plans to put Rousey in a tag team match at WrestleMania. According to the report, WWE is hopeful that The Rock would return for a match with Rousey against the team of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
Seeds for such a match were first planted nearly three years ago when The Rock and Rousey had an in-ring confrontation with WWE’s power couple at WrestleMania 31. When the match was rumored for WrestleMania 32, it never materialized, and it’s unknown if The Rock would agree to do it at WrestleMania 34.
The Rock hasn’t wrestled a legitimate match since losing the WWE Championship to John Cena at WrestleMania 29. He technically had an impromptu six-second match with Erick Rowan at WrestleMania 32.
If The Rock is unavailable, WWE could pair Rousey with someone else. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle has had his issues with Stephanie McMahon, and a WrestleMania feud between himself and Triple H would make sense. Braun Strowman could be another possibility, given that the seeds for a feud between himself and Triple H were planted at Survivor Series.
Rousey did not appear on “Monday Night Raw” the night after the Royal Rumble.
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