Ronda Rousey recently made her shocking debut on the independent scene after parting ways with WWE in August. Rousey appeared in Wrestling Revolver’s Unreal event ahead of AEW Full Gear where she teamed with her best friend and AEW wrestler Marina Shafir. Two two wrestled against ROH Women’s World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz. After the match ended in a no contest due to Athena hitting Rousey with the championship, Rousey debuted in ROH the next day with her original theme song, “Bad Reputation” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts to challenge for a rematch.
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Maria Kanellis-Bennett, AEW/ROH wrestler and owner of Women’s Wrestling Army, helped book the ROH women’s division before Tony Khan bought the promotion in 2022. Kanellis recently spoke to Iridian Fierro of WGN Radio 720 about Rousey’s return to wrestling and her subsequent debut in Ring of Honor. “I think it’s telling that Ronda Rousey had her match at Ring of Honor. I think Ring of Honor has always been the standard. It’s a standard bearer of what women’s wrestling can be, what wrestling in general can be. To have Ronda Rousey appear on a Ring of Honor show, it’s very telling of what the division is [and] where it can go.”
AEW President Tony Khan addressed Rousey’s appearance in Ring of Honor at the Full Gear media scrum on Saturday. “She’s not signed but we had a great conversation. It came about, of course, there was some unfinished business, they had that match and I thought it would be great for our fans to settle it in the ring,” Khan said. “At the Wrestling Revolver show, they had the tag match and to be honest, I had spoken to them and I thought it would be great to have a match and build some interest and then have the story come back to Ring of Honor where Athena is the Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion, Billie Starkz is her minion, there is a lot of interest in that.”
After Rousey and Shafir’s rematch against Athena and Starkz at the ROH taping, it seemed like the storyline may not be over just yet. When Athena hit Rousey with The Eclipse, she wasn’t the legal competitor in the match, so the pin didn’t count. Rousey used it as her opportunity to put the armbar on Starkz and pick up the win. Post-match, Rousey taunted Athena with the ROH Women’s World Title. Whether or not this will lead to a match at ROH Final Battle or another appearance from Rousey in ROH remains to be seen.
Rousey’s ROH debut premieres on HonorClub tonight, Nov. 23, at 7 p.m. EST.
