Ronda Rousey has never been one to back down from criticizing her WWE booking and took another opportunity to do so following her match at Money in the Bank this past Saturday in London. The nine-minute bout saw Shayna Baszler betray Rousey, leaving her as easy pickings for Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez to become two-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, the plan was always for Rousey and Baszler to have some sort of feud together before Rousey leaves the company, as she reportedly has a set date when her contract expires. There have been rumors of her stepping back inside the Octagon for at least one more fight in the UFC and having her continue to wrestle would obviously complicate preparations for a fight.ย
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Rousey turned heel in 2022 after Morgan cashed in her Money in the Bank contract to cost her the SmackDown Women’s Championship, then escaped with the title after a controversial match at that year’s SummerSlam. She wouldn’t start working alongside Baszler until February and the pair wouldn’t win the women’s tag titles until May. WWE’s booking plans for Rousey and Baszler’s tag title reign & feud were reportedly truncated because Rousey was injured earlier in the year.
Ronda Rousey on WWE Cutting Down Her Match at Money in the Bank 2023
Speaking of being truncated, that’s exactly what Rousey took issue with in a recent Instagram post. According to her, the tag title match at Money in the Bank was supposed to be significantly longer but kept getting cut down by backstage officials.ย
“When your time gets cut three times but you still put on a banger #ChickenSalad,” Rousey wrote. Meltzer also reported that Rousey vs. Baszler is being planned for SummerSlam next month in Detroit.ย
WWE Money in the Bank 2023 Results
- Damian Priest def. Ricochet, Shinsuke Nakamura, LA Knight, Santos Escobar, Butch and Logan Paul (Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match)
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship:ย Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez def. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszlerย
- Intercontinental Championship:ย Gunther def. Matt Riddle
- Cody Rhodes def. Dominik Mysterio
- Iyo Sky def. Becky Lynch, Zelina Vega, Zoey Stark, Bayley and Trish Stratus (Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match)
- World Heavyweight Championship:ย Seth Rollins def.ย Finn Balor
- The Usos def. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa
Shayna Baszler on Ronda Rousey Demanding a Women’s Tag Title Run
Baszler revealed in an interview with Cheap Heat last month that Rousey had to put her foot down backstage in order for WWE to book the two former MMA stars to win the women’s tag titles. They’d later unify the titles with the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships after then-champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn were drafted to SmackDown
“Ronda is Ronda, right. She’s been (involved with the) main title, she main evented WrestleMania. She still gets one of the loudest pops when we walk out. This was something she demanded.We’d been asking for it forever, but she finally put her foot down and went to the office and said, ‘Listen, we’ve been asking for this forever. You keep telling us, ‘After, after, after this [and] this,’” she explained.
“I honestly don’t know if she hadn’t done that, if they ever would have got to it,” she continued. “I wasn’t in a position yet to be elevated to a Ronda level, so the fact that Ronda said, ‘No, stop. I’ve done this. I want to do this because this is why I started wrestling.’ So I think that’s huge. She could be main-eventing SummerSlam. She doesn’t have to be where she is, which is elevating these titles.”
