At the end of tonight’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, Ronda Rousey told Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch that she will make her WrestleMania decision this Friday night on SmackDown.
The segment was designed to build suspense and get viewers to tune into SmackDown but the advertising on WWE.com pretty much spoilers what Rousey’s plans are for WrestleMania. The arena websites are listing Rousey for almost all of the Friday Night SmackDown shows leading up to WrestleMania. WWE.com’s event pages have Rousey listed for every SmackDown heading into Mania so this essentially confirms Dave Meltzer’s reporting that Rousey will decide to challenge for Charlotte Flair’s SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Meltzer noted that plans changed and it was decided on Rousey vs. Flair this year and next year’s match at WrestleMania 39 will likely be Rousey vs. Lynch. Rousey has signed on at least through next year’s WrestleMania so she will be a regular performer going forward, at least on the major pay-per-view events and weekly SmackDown shows.
After Rousey left the ring at the end of Raw, Lita walked out and issued a challenge that was accepted by Lynch for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. Lita has been in Rumble matches and multi-woman matches over the past decade and she beat Heath Slater on a 2012 episode of Raw but the upcoming match with Lynch will be her first full blown singles match on WWE TV since her retirement match against Mickie James at Survivor Series 2006.