Ronda Rousey is Officially Back

The new Smackdown Women's Champion may have just had the best week of her WWE career.

In a post prior to WrestleMania, I wrote about how Ronda Rousey’s return to WWE this year has gotten off to a bumpy start. Due to lackluster promos, rusty in-ring work, and simply being two more years removed from her MMA prime, her feud with Charlotte Flair felt tepid and uninspired, which carried over into a WrestleMania match that wasn’t bad but was also one of the least memorable parts of the two nights. Since Ronda’s last run was in 2018-2019, there’s been a lot of time for fans to forget how prodigious and skilled she was, and newer viewers probably have been wondering what the big deal is with Ronda based on what she’s shown on TV in the last couple months. In the last week, though, Ronda showed why she is a special talent who can be a real spark for the women’s division.

It started on Sunday at WrestleMania Backlash, where she took on Charlotte Flair again, this time in an “I quit” match. This kind of stipulation match ended up being the perfect fit for Rousey’s skill-set: she’ll never be the smoothest in-ring technician, but she delivers in a one-on-one scenario where she and an opponent she hates can beat the hell out of each other. This match had some of the hardcore cliches I’ve started to roll my eyes at in the last few years, like kendo sticks and brawling through the crowd, but it felt like the right time to bring them out as this feud had escalated in previous weeks. The use of weapons got to hide some of Ronda’s deficiencies, while also complementing her top-shelf intensity and the fight-like feel she brings — at times, it looks like Ronda forgets wrestling is staged, and that is part of the realism she brings that so many others lack.

It had a perfect ending too: Charlotte, the most hated woman in WWE, wishes Ronda “happy Mother’s Day,” then Ronda locks in her armbar with a chair. When the ref asks Charlotte if she wants to quit, Charlotte refuses. Ronda says “I was hoping you’d say that, bitch!” then locks it in further, forcing Charlotte to quit after she suffers a (storyline) broken arm. So the heel everyone hates had to eat shit in front of everyone and got deservingly injured, which is why wrestling is better than real life. This match served as a reminder that Rousey simply brings some of this action to a different level with her presence, and while she is uncharismatic on the microphone, she is a great trash-talker and shows tons of personality when she’s fighting other strong personalities.

But that actually wasn’t the most impressive match Ronda had in the week to me. I was blown away by a match she had on Friday Night Smackdown against Raquel Rodriguez (formerly Raquel Gonzalez because WWE works in mysterious ways), even though it wasn’t necessarily intended to be a barn-burner.

Ronda comes out with her new Smackdown women’s title, and being a babyface, issues an open challenge to the locker room. Raquel, who was a champion in NXT but has only had one match in front of the main roster audience, answers it. Having watched her in NXT, I see a lot of potential in Raquel due to how physically impressive she is, but would not consider her a ring general, and I can’t remember being particularly amazed by any of her matches. So Ronda is put in a tricky spot here, having to wrestle an up-and-coming babyface who is much bigger than her without any of the gimmickry or the heated personal feud that made the match at Backlash effective. Plus, WWE does some crazy things, but everyone is pretty sure Ronda isn’t dropping the title here, so she needs to retain in a way that doesn’t make the fans resent her.

While this is being set up, I’m thinking of all the scenarios for what they’re doing, and a lot of them end badly, either by weakening Raquel early in her main roster run or making Ronda come off as unlikable — not to mention the risk of them having a bad match that makes the audience lose respect for both as performers. Instead, this match ended up being a best-case scenario because of how it was laid out and the way each wrestler held up their end of the deal. Raquel hit a bunch of her power moves, foiling many of Ronda’s usual reversals, and had the champion on the ropes. Ronda was brilliant at selling the pain and struggle of the match, which put over Raquel’s strength, but escaped with a roll-up win at the end, then shook Raquel’s hand. Since Ronda snaps most of the women’s arms in a minute, a competitive loss by a roll-up made Raquel look like a force, while Ronda looked like the respectful fighting champion. Everyone benefited, and it’s possible this is also setting the stage for a Raquel heel turn and more fleshed-out feud between the two.

Ronda’s first run was helped by the novelty factor of seeing this MMA star seriously committing to pro wrestling. On this second run, though, I think Ronda needs to assimilate to the roster and get over more as a regular wrestler because she has experience now and her MMA days are further in the rear-view mirror. This match is the kind a champion needs to have, where it’s about making the opponent look good and setting up the rest of the division for success, so to see it be pulled off this well by Ronda on likely short notice gave me a decent amount of optimism about this comeback. The big question mark now is whether she can have a truly engaging feud between the matches, but any lingering questions about her in-ring have been firmly answered.