Ronda Rousey Close to Inking Deal to Join WWE in Part Time Role
Ronda Rousey’s dreams of becoming a professional wrestler may soon come true.
The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion is closing in on a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to join the promotion in a part time role where she would be expected to appear at several shows at least over the course of the next year.
Sources close to Rousey confirmed that talks are ongoing with WWE, although no contracts have been signed at this time, but everything is pointing in the right direction that she will appear in the professional wrestling ring sooner rather than later. USA Today first reported the news earlier this week.
Now the catch to Rousey going to the WWE is that she wouldn’t be a full time performer.
Sources indicated that if a deal gets done, Rousey would likely make appearances at some of the big WWE shows throughout the year such as Royal Rumble or WrestleMania but she wouldn’t be expected to suddenly become a full time performer.
Former UFC champion and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar works a similar schedule where he makes several appearances throughout the year but a far less strenuous travel schedule than most professional wrestlers.
Right now, Rousey is in the midst of filming a role in the upcoming movie “Mile 22” where she stars alongside Mark Wahlberg, John Malkovich and “Walking Dead’ star Lauren Cohan. Filming is expected to run on that movie through February with production taking place in Atlanta.
Rousey has made an appearance in WWE previously when she popped up alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at WrestleMania 31 to get into an “altercation” with executives Paul “Triple H” Levesque and his wife Stephanie McMahon.
Since that time, Rousey has continued to support the WWE publicly including an appearance at the “Mae Young Classic” where she sat ringside to support her friend and fellow UFC veteran Shayna Baszler, who has been working as a professional wrestler for the past few years.
Rousey even engaged in a staged standoff with a trio of WWE wrestlers including Charlotte Flair, who has stated in past interviews that she would love to headline a WrestleMania against the former UFC women’s champion.
If Rousey reaches an agreement with WWE, there’s no exact timeline for her to make a debut but with WrestleMania in April, it would make sense for her to appear prior to that event considering it’s the biggest of the year for the promotion.
