Why Ronda Rousey Wrestled Ruby Riott Again on Raw + More on Rousey Leaving

On Monday’s Raw, Ronda Rousey wrestled Ruby Riott in a Women’s title rematch despite beating her in a squash the night before at Elimination Chamber.

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, that was not the original plan for Raw. The show was heavily re-written on Monday because it was originally supposed to include a lot of Seth Rollins segments, but WWE learned that day that Rollins could not be cleared for any physical action yet.

Rousey was originally supposed to wrestle Alexa Bliss in another quick squash match on Raw. When so many Rollins segments had to be scrapped, WWE needed to fill time and needed a decent main event. They felt that Rousey vs. Bliss in a long match wouldn’t be good, so they put Riott in there because Rousey and Riott were comfortable working with each other and WWE was more confident that they could put on a decent longer match.

So that’s why Ruby Riott inexplicably got another title shot.

Rousey Leaving Update

As mentioned, Ronda Rousey will be taking quite a bit of time off from WWE some time after WrestleMania.

As of now, there is no firm final date for her. It could be WrestleMania, could be the PPV after WrestleMania, or maybe even SummerSlam.

Rousey is seen as a “100% team player” according to Dave Meltzer, so she may be willing to work with WWE if they want her to stay a bit longer.

Rousey’s goal is to help elevate the women’s division and to make it bigger even after she’s gone. Women will likely be main eventing WrestleMania this year, so she will probably achieve that goal. That’s another big reason for Charlotte being added to the match, because WWE wants to have more than one “WrestleMania main eventer” after Rousey leaves.