Maybe Ronda Rousey abruptly ending her WWE career shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Looking at the way Rousey’s UFC and movie careers were put on hold, this may simply just be a pattern of person wading through their professional career.
Recently Rousey has dropped a few context clues here and there about viewing her WWE career in the past tense. In her own video blog series, Rousey admitted she was coming to grips with the fact she may never get to compete in a Royal Rumble match.
This week the Raw women’s champion spoke about wanting to leave WWE’s women division in a better place when she left.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required and encouraged) Dave Meltzer reports that WWE is already preparing for life without Rousey. Not years from now, but the company expects Rousey to leave right after WrestleMania 35 in April.
“There is a very good chance that Ronda Rousey will be finishing up with WWE at WrestleMania. If that’s the case, she would likely put Becky Lynch over more likely then Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, given that would be what the fans would want.
There was a decent amount of talk this past week internally, since we heard it from several people, that Rousey would finish up at WrestleMania. That may not be decided as that aspect is just the feeling people had since it’s the logical ending everyone came to based on the situation.
As of today, this was the plan.”
Meltzer continues
“Right now, there is no hard and firm last day, but the working idea, which has been the case since January 2018, is that Mania 2019 is the finishing date. The discussion right now is whether Mania is it, or maybe she does the PPV after Mania. We’ve been through enough Brock Lesnar situations to know that Vince McMahon, come the last week, will make great offers and change finishes to shock people, especially at WrestleMania.”
The report would go on to say due to WrestleMania 35 being her potential last date, it is a big reason why WWE wants Rousey’s final match to be a triple threat. The theory being in this scenario both Lynch and Flair would get the boost from taking part in Rousey’s last match.
Following her debut at the 2018 Royal Rumble, it has been a whirlwind year for the former UFC champion turned pro wrestling rookie. Rousey had a critically acclaimed match at WrestleMania 34, captured the Raw women’s title sooner than expected, and held down the main event spot for WWE’s first all women’s pay-per-view in October.
If WrestleMania 35 is truly the end of Ronda Rousey’s pro wrestling career, how do you grade her run with WWE?