WWE WrestleMania Main Event Botched Finish Finally Explained
The main event of WrestleMania 35 in 2019 marked the first time women had competed in the annual WWE show's final match as Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair to win both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships. But those who were watching the match live will likely remember how it ended, with Lynch rolling Rousey up and getting the three count despite one of Rousey's shoulders obviously being up. Commentator Corey Graves tried to point it out at the time but was shouted down, highlight replays of the match cut away before the botch and Lynch brushed it off in interviews in the months that followed.
Rousey finally addressed what happened during a recent interview on The Kurt Angle Show — "I didn't think my shoulder was down. I was trying to flatten out to put my shoulder more down. That's what was happening. I thought it was just the very tops of my shoulders, so I was trying to shimmy down so the actual back of my shoulders was down and I didn't know that he had already started counting, so I'm worried that my shoulder came up during the shimmy. So I was trying to help, but it ended up being awesome because now I have a gripe to revisit. That wasn't on purpose. I apologized about that one. It wasn't until later that I was like, 'Oh s—, my bad.'"
Rousey would take a hiatus from WWE following that match and wouldn't return until this year's Royal Rumble. She promptly won and challenged Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship, eventually winning it at WrestleMania Backlash via an I Quit Match. She has since admitted in interviews that she was surprised fans cheered for her upon her return.
"I guess the feedback I get is a live audience," she said on the Wives of Wrestling Podcast earlier this year. "There's a lot of times where what you think is coming online and what the live audience is expressing are two opposite things. Case in point, Royal Rumble, I left as a heel and was getting booed out of every stadium, and I was like, 'okay, so I assumed everyone thought I was still a heel.' And any interviews I gave any time I was talking — on the fans. Like, being in character for in case I come back, and that's what I assumed I would come back to. When it ended up being not that reaction, I was really, really surprised."