Ronda Rousey Likely To Miss WWE Royal Rumble

Ronda Rousey is reportedly not going to be a part of the 2023 Royal Rumble event even though she was a champion on Smackdown less than a month ago.

It was one year ago at the 2022 Royal Rumble when Ronda Rousey made a surprise appearance as the 28th entrant in the match. Rousey ended up winning the match to earn a championship match at WrestleMania 38.

Rousey ended up winning the Smackdown Women’s Title twice in 2022 when she beat Charlotte Flair for the gold at WrestleMania Backlash in May and then she won it back from Liv Morgan at Extreme Rules in October.

On the final Smackdown episode of 2022 that aired on December 30th, Rousey lost the Smackdown Women’s Title back to Flair, who won it in less than one minute. Since the loss, Rousey has kept off of television and has shown no sign of wanting to get the title back.

Fightful Select has reported that Rousey wasn’t planned to be in this year’s Royal Rumble at the time when she lost the Smackdown Women’s Title to Charlotte Flair on December 30th. This could change, but for now, it appears that Rousey will be off the Royal Rumble event entirely.

Regarding the women’s Royal Rumble match, Fightful also reported that WWE was very confident in their women’s roster as is with the hires and call-ups over the last year. That could mean there are fewer surprise entrants that are women from the past like we have seen in recent years for the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

While Rousey is not likely to be in the Women’s Royal Rumble match this year, her good friend Shayna Baszler confirmed that she will be in the match on last night’s Smackdown episode.