Raquel Rodriguez Says Match Against Ronda Rousey Boosted Her Confidence

Ronda Rousey had a decent 2022, with her winning the SmackDown Women’s Champion for the first time in her career. The Baddest Woman on the Planet made a triumphant return at the Royal Rumble, punching her ticket to WrestleMania. However, Rousey lost at the grandest stage of them all against Charlotte Flair, but she managed to defeat Flair at WrestleMania Backlash and become the SmackDown Women’s Champion for the first time in her career. Since then, her story progressed, and she also had quite a special match with Raquel Rodriguez just before losing that title to a returning Charlotte Flair.

Ronda Rousey’s first reign as the SmackDown Women’s Champion was appreciated by the WWE Universe, but she failed to gain the same reaction for her second reign. The second reign was a complete disaster, with her only defense at the PLE against Shotzi. She was also criticized for her performances and for not taking the wrestling business seriously.

Ronda Rousey last defended her title against Raquel Rodriguez on 30th December edition of SmackDown, after which she was defeated by the returning Charlotte Flair in an impromptu match the same night. Rodriguez has fought against Ronda Rousey for the SmackDown Women’s Championship during both her reigns. Raquel Rodriguez’s first encounter against Rousey was in May last year for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. The encounter took place soon after she debuted on main roster.

During a recent interview with Post Wrestling, Raquel Rodriguez admitted that her defeat against Rousey in May of last year gave her a lot more confidence. She believes that she gave Rousey one of the finest fights of her career.

“I took a lot of confidence from that [Match]. I realized, you know, I may be the new girl, I may have less experience than a lot of people but I know I can do this and being able to step into the ring with Ronda Rousey and give her one of her best matches of her career not only having one of my best matches of my career… It really boosted my confidence that much more. So I feel like I’m going into Elimination Chamber with the most amount of confidence that I’ve ever had in the past year being yo on SmackDown.”

Ronda Rousey recently made an appearance on the February 10th edition of SmackDown, where she gave a helping hand to Shayna Baszler in taking out Natalya and Shotzi. Rousey had recently stated that her next goal in the WWE would be fighting for the women’s Tag Team Championship.

What’s your take on Ronda Rousey’s WWE booking? Sound off in the comments!