WWE Referee Received Major Heat From Vince McMahon Over Ronda Rousey’s Last Match

Ronda Rousey hasn’t been seen in WWE since WrestleMania 35. She is currently at home in Browsey Acres, pregnant with the couple’s first child. The Baddest Woman the the Planet could make a WWE return, but that’s not happening for a long time at this point.

Rousey is still paying attention to WWE. She recently grilled the company’s fans for not supporting Bray Wyatt prior to his release. Still, she has yet to lock up in a WWE ring since losing at WrestleMania 35.

Rod Zapata was the referee during that triple threat WrestleMania main event. Rousey’s shoulders weren’t even really down at the end, but he counted the pinfall anyway. While speaking on his show on AdFreeShows, Mike Chioda revealed that Vince McMahon was a bit furious about how that went down.

“Rod Zapata was the referee for that match and got a lot of heat for it, a lot of heat for that match for counting. He shouldn’t have counted. I think he panicked. He could have said, ‘Hey, get that shoulder down more. Get that shoulder down.’  Sometimes if you start a count and it’s almost not touching, and if you’re telling them as you’re counting, they can make the adjustment and get it tighter. He should have never counted.  He got a lot of heat for that.  I remember there was so much heat that you almost thought he was going to lose his job at that point.”

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“That was something that you just have to work as a referee. If you don’t see something down, you can’t count it the way the camera angles are. Vince was f**king hot. Laurinaitis was hot. Rightfully so. You have to man up to your mistakes. That’s why it’s hard to be a referee.”

“You know that’s the finish, and he was saying something about how he didn’t think Ronda or someone couldn’t make the adjustment. I remember we said to him, ‘Why didn’t you just tell them to get the shoulder down as you’re counting?’ He tried to protect himself and said ‘I don’t think she could have made the adjustment.’ Those were his return words, and I think he got himself a little more heat after that. That goes back to where you have to protect yourself as a referee because it’s going to make you look bad for counting the shoulders that are not down. It makes you look like sh*t, and that’s where you bury yourself if you don’t make the adjustment.”

We’ll have to see if Ronda Rousey ever returns to avenge that loss. A singles match between Rousey and Becky Lynch has been long anticipated, but it never went down.

Rousey seems happy with her current life events, so it’s unknown if she will make that return to WWE. She has already made it abundantly clear that she will never come back with a full-time touring schedule.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!

Thanks to Wrestling News for the quote