Ronda Rousey fans won’t have to wait until SummerSlam to see the former UFC Champion in action again.
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Raw general manager Kurt Angle announced during Raw on Monday that Rousey will compete in her first televised match on the Aug. 6 edition of Monday Night Raw in Jacksonville, Florida against Alicia Fox.
After spending the last five weeks on suspension, Rousey returned to the WWE on Monday night to assist her training partner, Natalya, in her match against Fox. Natalya wound up on the losing end thanks to some interference by Alexa Bliss, prompting Rousey to get involved and nearly lock in the armbar on Bliss several times. But each time she tried, Fox pounced on her from behind.
Rousey then approached Angle backstage and said she was ready to get back into competition. The Olympic Gold medalist happily obliged and made the match.
While she’s made a number of appearances at house shows, Rousey’s only two WWE matches thus far have been on pay-per-view. She made her in-ring debut at WrestleMania 34 alongside Angle in a mixed-tag match against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon (which she won by making the latter tap out), then followed that up with a match against then-Raw Women’s Champion Nia Jax at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view in June.
Her ongoing feud with Bliss kicked off during that match with Jax. Just as Rousey was about to lock in the armbar and win the match, Bliss ran in and struck her in the back of the head with her Money in the Bank briefcase. She then tossed Rousey over the announcer’s table, cashed in her contract on Jax and hit her Twisted Bliss finisher to become a five-time women’s champion.
Rousey responded the following night by slamming Bliss through a table, but in a rage she also put her hands on Angle to cause the month-long suspension. An extra week was added on when she got involved in a match between Bliss and Jax at Extreme Rules and wound up accidentally helping Bliss retain.
Bliss and Rousey will face-off at SummerSlam on Aug. 19 with the Raw Women’s Championship on the line. Should Rousey win, she’ll have the chance to headline WWE’s first-ever all-women pay-per-view, dubbed Evolution, on Oct. 28.
The event was announced during the July 23 episode of Raw, and will feature every female champion in the company, including the NXT and NXT UK rosters, defend their titles.
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