Ronda Rousey’s appearance at AEW Revolution was a one-time deal and she has no further appearances planned with the company, according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live.
Alvarez said the appearance was purely opportunistic. Rousey lives in Los Angeles, Revolution was in LA, and she saw it as an easy way to promote her upcoming fight with Gina Carano on May 16.
“I can confirm that Ronda Rousey is done with AEW,” Alvarez said. “It was a one and done. She showed up. It was in LA. She’s in LA. Thought it would be an easy way to plug the upcoming fight with Gina Carano in May. She showed up, they immediately plugged the fight, and that’s it.”
Alvarez said he was surprised by the lack of follow-up given how the segment played out on screen.
“When I saw what they did, I thought, well, they have to be setting up some match or something,” Alvarez said. “She showed up, challenged Toni Storm. Toni Storm got attacked by Marina. Ronda laughed. We had a big thing going here. She left with the Death Riders.”
Alvarez noted that even if Rousey could not compete in a full match due to training for her MMA fight, there were still options available to continue the storyline.
“People were like, well, she is training, she can’t possibly do a match. All right, fine. Could she be in Marina’s corner? Could she do something?” Alvarez said. “Apparently, nope. She agreed to that one night, and she’s out of there.”
Alvarez clarified that the door is not permanently closed but there is nothing in the works. “It’s not like she can’t come back, but there are no plans for her to be back,” he said.
Rousey appeared at AEW Revolution to support her best friend Marina Shafir and said on her own YouTube channel that the appearance was partly “a little bit of a f**k you” to TKO Group, the parent company of WWE and UFC, following the collapse of her UFC return negotiations.
