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Ronda Rousey Joining WWE Was “Smart Business”

Ronda Rousey

A WWE executive believes that Ronda Rousey making the jump from MMA and joining the company was “smart business.”

“Rowdy” Ronda Rousey made her name in the world of mixed martial arts, climbing to the top of UFC as the company’s first female Bantamweight Champion. That success came following her years as a judoka which led to her winning an Olympic Bronze Medal in Judo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

A lifelong wrestling fan, Rousey had long been rumoured to be coming to WWE, with the chatter surrounding that increasing after her in-ring appearance with The Rock, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 31.

Rousey finally signalled her intention to compete for WWE when she shocked the world with her surprise appearance at the end of the 2018 Royal Rumble. It was three more months before Ronda Rousey competed in the ring at WrestleMania 34 when she teamed with Kurt Angle to defeat Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.

On his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, WWE executive Road Dogg has explained what he thinks Rousey brought to the company and why it was “smart business” to bring such a huge name in:

“How do you open up those channels to bring in, maybe the lapsed fan that hasn’t watched in a while? Or maybe the fan that hasn’t ever watched, but her [Rousey] popularity brings their eyeballs over to our product and so, yeah, look, bringing Ronda on board is smart business. And I don’t care what anybody thinks about that.”

Road Dogg also revealed that WWE had originally planned a different debut for Ronda Rousey that could have catapulted her to the top of the company straight away.

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