The word is out that former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and will be devoting 100-percent of her time to professional wrestling.
Does that mean she’s retired from mixed martial arts (MMA)?
Yes. No. Maybe.
“Rowdy” refused to give an answer and responded in what might be the worst way possible. It’s her right, of course, since it’s her life and her career, I’m just not sure why it’s so painful to say “I don’t know yet.”
“That’s what everybody else seems to say,” Rousey said when asked if she was gone for good. “I mean, I never retired from judo. If that’s what you guys want to think, all I know is that I really want to devote 100 percent of my time to wrestling right now and whatever people want to call that, they can call it.”
The Olympian has not competed since back-to-back knockout losses to Holly Holm (UFC 193) and Amanda Nunes (UFC 207).
After a WrestleMania one-off back in 2015, Rousey begins to explore a full-time role with WWE under the guidance of Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, Paul “Triple H” Levesque (which explains this).
In fact, she’s already been training for several months and made her pay-per-view (PPV) return at last Sunday night’s Royal Rumble, where she teased a showdown at WrestleMania 34 inside Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 8, 2018.
Will she have an actual match or just another run-in? I guess it depends on what everybody else seems to say.