WWE’s Original Plan For Ronda Rousey At WrestleMania 39

WWE’s biggest show of the year is getting a lot of hype as the road to WrestleMania builds. It appears that we all know Rhea Ripley’s direction after she won the Royal Rumble match, and Ronda Rousey is supposedly destined to team with Shayna Baszler to battle for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles. That wasn’t always the plan.

There was a time when Ronda Rousey vs Rhea Ripley was the WrestleMania match this year. However, plans changed on that when Charlotte Flair returned during the final SmackDown of 2022 and reclaimed her SmackDown Women’s Title.

Sean Sapp reported behind Fightful’s paywall that these plans changed when Ronda Rousey took some time off from WWE television. That resulted in Charlotte Flair’s “last-minute” title win.

Ronda Rousey vs. Rhea Ripley, WrestleMania: Dating back to November, the creative plans for the Royal Rumble winner were effectively set. Rhea Ripley was set to win, and challenge the Smackdown Women’s Champion. At that time, it looked like that would be Ronda Rousey, who was slated to hold the Smackdown Title until April. When Rousey took time off, and Charlotte won the championship last-minute, creative plans were changed to

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We will have to see how things progress on the road to WrestleMania. Obviously, every feud on the card is going to interest certain portions of the fan base, but Rhea Ripley vs Ronda Rousey would have been a big marquee match with a lot of potential as well.

Perhaps WWE fans will see Ronda Rousey vs Rhea Ripley on a big stage some day. It seems that this year’s WrestleMania just didn’t work out for that big collision.

What’s your take on these plans? Sound off in the comments!