Ronda Rousey is returning to MMA on Saturday (May 16) for a dream fight against Gina Carano.
While promoting the fight, Rousey told The Takedown on SI
that she is very proud of opening doors for women in the combat sports world, including WWE.“I’m very aware that women are headlining WWE because of me. That women are headlining and making big paydays in boxing because of me. In bare-knuckle boxing, in full-contact karate, in everything that’s a contact sport. I’m very, very proud of seeing all the
success the women are having, because I was able to prove their commercial viability, and everyone’s trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle.
I’m so happy to see it. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully understand the scope of those ripple effects — nor anybody else — but that’s not why you do it. I’m very, very proud, and it’s very cool to see. I’m glad it’s got to the point that things are so different that people forget how it used to be. I’m not mad at that. I’m proud.”
A lot of wrestling fans may roll their eyes or get upset to see Rousey take credit for this, but her impact cannot be overstated when it comes to proving that women can draw huge money as headline attractions in the fight game.
While Ronda was busy setting PPV records for UFC around 2015, main roster WWE was just finally starting to maybe take women’s wrestling seriously that year after decades of it being largely a joke, a footnote, or for gratuitous sex appeal.
Keep in mind that the only women’s match at WrestleMania 31 that year was a nearly seven minute tag team match of AJ Lee & Paige vs. The Bella Twins. There were no women’s championships on the line at WrestleMania that year, and the Divas championship was the only such title on the main roster.
In 2014, the only women’s match at WrestleMania 30 was a Vickie Guerrero Invitational Battle Royal that also fell short of seven minutes. In 2013 at WrestleMania 29, the only match advertised for the card that had women in it (an 8-person mixed tag of Bella Twins, Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow vs. Brodus Clay, Tensai & The Funkadactyls) was pulled due to time constraints. These are the years where Rousey became a top drawing sensation in UFC.
Perhaps the major strides being made in women’s wrestling in NXT around 2015 would have inevitably translated to the WWE main roster at some point, and women would have eventually headlined WrestleMania anyway, but I think Rousey’s unprecedented money-making success in UFC certainly sped up the timeline for all of that to happen.
WWE expanding WrestleMania to two nights in 2020 has created more chances for women to headline the event. However, Rousey was the key to 2019 being the only time when a women’s match headlined a one night WrestleMania event. I think it’s reasonable to doubt that Vince McMahon would have headlined WrestleMania with Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair that year, if Ronda Rousey wasn’t in the picture.
Do you think Ronda Rousey is right to take credit for women headlining WWE, or does her UFC success have little to do with women rising up the card in Vince McMahon’s fantasy world of scripted fights? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
