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WWE Star Slams Critics Erasing Ronda Rousey’s Accomplishments

By Craig Ballantyne • Published 8th November 2023
Ronda Rousey holding Raw Women's Championship

Shayna Baszler believes that Ronda Rousey’s work in combat sports is under-appreciated.

Rousey and Baszler both came to WWE after careers in MMA where the pair became firm friends as two of MMA’s ‘Four Horsewomen’ alongside Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke.

That friendship carried over to the world of pro wrestling, with Baszler and Rousey becoming a tag team in WWE in 2022 and capturing the Women’s Tag Titles. However, the partnership imploded at Money In The Bank in London in July 2023 when Baszler abandoned the Baddest Woman On The Planet during a title defence.

From there, the two engaged in a bitter rivalry, with Baszler claiming Rousey had been handed everything in WWE, while she had to work her way up the ranks. The feud culminated in an MMA-Rules match at SummerSlam, which the Queen Of Spades won by referee decision.

Despite the storyline claims, though, Baszler recently spoke to WrestleZone about Rousey and revealed she actually believes the star to be underappreciated in both pro wrestling and MMA.

“I think Ronda Rousey is, I think she’s under-appreciated. I think people like to hate her for whatever reason, and it’s been that way in MMA — it’s because she doesn’t mince her words.

“People like to, because they don’t like her personally, they like to try to erase what she’s done for women’s sports, women’s combat sports, the UFC & WWE. They like to minimize that just because they don’t like her personally and I think that’s a shame.

“I might not be on the best terms [with her], but I will never deny that she did a lot for women’s combat sports. I think she’s under appreciated in some sense.”

Following the bout at SummerSlam, Ronda Rousey seemingly retired from pro wrestling, however, she recently made a return to the sport in a surprising way.

Ronda Rousey Makes Shock Return To Wrestling

On October 26th, Ronda Rousey joined Marina Shafir in tag team action, but for the first time in Rousey’s wrestling career, it wasn’t in a WWE ring. Instead, the pair took on Brian Kendrick and Taya Valkyrie at Lucha VaVOOM’s event in Los Angeles, California.

The event won’t be Rousey’s only indie date either, as she will also appear at Pro Wrestling Revolver’s Unreal event on November 16th, again in LA.

H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.