News: WWE President Nick Khan Comments on WWE Returns of Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey

Two of WWE’s biggest female stars may be back in the ring soon according to WWE President Nick Khan.

Nick Khan was a guest on Colin Cowherd’s podcast today and spoke about two of WWE’s biggest names. Khan specifically mentioned Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey, who were part of the WrestleMania 35 main event (along with Charlotte Flair) on this day two years ago. Here’s what Khan said (with thanks to Fightful):

“Ronda is going to be coming back at a certain point in time. Becky Lynch, she just had her first baby, she will be coming back at a certain point in time in the not too distant future.”

Becky Lynch has been absent from WWE programming since after last year’s WrestleMania when she let the world know she was pregnant. Back in December, Becky (along with fiance Seth Rollins) gave birth to daughter Roux. It was expected that Lynch would return to WWE at some point after giving birth, but no date has been given and no announcements have been made. If Lynch does return, she will likely be part of the Smackdown brand with her fiance Seth Rollins so that they can be on the same show together, which would make life easier when it comes to being parents to their daughter.

Ronda Rousey left WWE after WrestleMania 35 two years ago when Lynch pinned her in the main event. Rousey spoke about wanting to spend time with her family, including husband Travis Browne and his sons that he has from a previous relationship. Last October, Rousey was photographed in a wrestling ring doing some training with Impact Wrestling’s James Storm and Browne, so that led to speculation that Ronda might be back soon. That was six months ago now, so it’s not known when she might be back.

Here are more notes from Nick Khan’s appearance on Colin Cowherd’s podcast courtesy of Wrestling Observer:

• In talking about WrestleMania, he plugged the A&E partnership and the documentaries that kick off in April.
• He said expanding further in the media universe is their top priority. They see themselves as an entertainment company and not a wrestling company.
• He feels like they are sitting on a “treasure trove” of intellectual property and they want to focus on monetizing it.
• They are “hyper-focused” on Latin America, and specifically Mexico. He said two smaller groups run in Mexico and he feels that if you were to take one of those companies and add the WWE effect to it, it could be very successful with local stars and a free-to-air TV product. He clarified they weren’t looking to buy one of those groups, but do something from the ground up.
• He said he doesn’t want Twitter to be their primary influence as it accounts for a small percentage of their fanbase. He pushed live audience reaction as what they want to help guide decision making and how that has been difficult due to the pandemic.
• When they return to running live shows, there’s no going back. He said they would return three times a week (Raw, SmackDown, NXT) but didn’t give an indication as to whether house shows were going to be part of the mix.
• He said Fastlane was a massive success in terms of subscriptions for Peacock, but didn’t clarify what percentage of those subscribers were WWE Network converts.
• He said they are very popular in the Philippines as are other U.S. entertainment properties.
• In talking about Vince McMahon, he said he’s not surprised he has not sold the company because he built it and is the best person to run it. He then joked about how another executive once asked McMahon where he was “summering” and taking time off and McMahon replied that he was going to “summer” in his office in Stamford, CT. Khan said people don’t realize how polite he is and that he isn’t interested in a lot of small talk. He’s formal and a calculated businessman that is always ready to talk about the business.

It’s also worth noting that Nick Khan was Colin Cowherd’s agent prior to Khan leaving CAA for WWE, so that’s why Nick Khan likely agreed to do the interview to share all of this information.

You can listen to the full podcast here.

TJR Thoughts: The obvious big talking point here is the WWE returns of Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey. Regarding Lynch, it’s been about five months since having the baby, so she’s likely in good enough shape to return to the ring. With Khan saying that Lynch will return at a “certain point in time in the not too distant future” that makes me think we might see Lynch as soon as WrestleMania this Saturday or Sunday. If not there then maybe on the first Smackdown after WrestleMania because as I said I expect Lynch on Smackdown with Seth Rollins. Anyway, I’m excited to see Becky back in action whenever she is ready to return to the ring.

As for Rousey, those comments from Khan make it seem like Rousey is coming back later in the year, but he could have just said it that way to throw people off. Maybe around SummerSlam for her, but I don’t really know. Maybe Ronda can complain about how Lynch didn’t really pin her at WrestleMania 35 since Ronda’s shoulders were clearly up. I doubt that will be mentioned, but obviously a lot of fans remember that.

Whenever Lynch and Rousey are back, there’s still a lot of money left to be made in a Lynch vs. Rousey match that we haven’t seen yet. Since Charlotte Flair was added to the match two years ago, a lot of fans would likely want to see Lynch vs. Rousey as a singles match.