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Ronda Rousey reflects on faceoff with Shayna Baszler.
At WWE’s 2023 SummerSlam event, Long-time friends Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler brought their mixed martial arts backgrounds to the forefront as they battled in an MMA Rules match. Baszler ultimately won the affair after Rousey passed out to her Kirifuda Clutch. During a recent appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Rousey looked back on their SummerSlam match, which ended up being her last in WWE.
“I think if we did the match at Bloodsport or something, people would have loved it,” Rousey said. “But I think the crowd, it wasn’t for them at all. It was all MMA easter eggs and all of these moments in MMA history that we’re big geeks for that, we were recreating and throwing homage to in the match and it was not inviting any audience participation or anything like that. It was kind of like, I don’t know if you read my [autobiography] book, but it was a nice little f*** you on the way out.”
“You’re gonna sit here and watch this match that we wanted to do from the very beginning. I don’t care what you think, go get some f*cking popcorn. But yeah, we loved it. We had a great time. And from the very, very beginning, I always wanted to be able to wrestle with Shayna and be able to put her over and leave.”
According to Rousey, the match between her and Baszler would have never materialized had she not threatened to leave WWE at the beginning of 2023. After also being denied the opportunity to wrestle Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 39, Rousey alternatively offered up the idea of forming a tag team with Baszler that would later result in a betrayal and their culminating faceoff at SummerSlam.
“I was like, Fine, I’m gonna tag with Shayna, and she’s in turn on me, and then I’m gonna leave, or I’m gonna f***ing leave right now. That was the only reason we were able to do it, because they wouldn’t let us do any Four Horsewoman stuff. They wouldn’t let me and Shayna do anything together, because Vince [McMahon] was convinced that no one knew that me and Shayna were actually friends.”
Following her exit from WWE, Rousey wrestled three matches, two of which were on the independent circuit. The other saw her and Marina Shafir defeat Athena and Athena on Ring of Honor programming.
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