Ronda Rousey Hints She May Join ‘The Rock’ At Next Year’s Wrestlemania
Arguably already the biggest crossover star the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) has ever seen, dominant UFC women’s bantamweight champion shocked fans everywhere by making an appearance alongside her “Furious 7” co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at this past Sunday’s (March 29, 2015) WrestleMania 31.
“Rowdy” climbed into the ring as “The Rock’s” fighting partner to battle perpetual heels “The Authority,” throwing UFC executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque with a trademark judo toss and putting his real-life wife, WWE principal owner Stephanie McMahon, in a shoulder lock that sent her screaming from the squared circle.
The surprising pro-wrestling spot was one that UFC President Dana White had to sign off on, but he did, and now Rousey could be parlaying her successful fake fighting debut into something even bigger. Rousey tweeted a cryptic message of things to come yesterday (Mon., March 30, 2015), saying that her WrestleMania spot was only the beginning of her foray into “sports entertainment”:
The night: Historic. The moment: Electric. The Rock, Ronda &the WWE Universe: Magic. We’re just gettin’ started… pic.twitter.com/mUOoBIFsaQ
— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) March 30, 2015
Rousey also tweeted out a link to a Fansided article that cited MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer as saying she could definitely be headed for a WrestleMania 32 tag team match against “The Authority” with “The Rock” as her partner:
“To further the rumors along, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that there could be something in the works for WrestleMania 32 next year in Dallas. This would see Rousey and The Rock form a tag team and basically take over the world – because how could they not?”
If these rumors are indeed true, then Rousey would certainly be the first MMA fighter to cross over into pro-wrestling with any degree of mainstream success. True, fighters like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Tito Ortiz, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, and longtime Japanese pro-wrestler Josh Barnett have all tried their hand in the squared circle at some time or another, but none has come even close to sniffing the grand stage of WrestleMania.
Rousey, who’s set to take on bitter Brazilian rival Bethe Correia in her next fight at August’s UFC 190 from Rio, should see her star power increase even more with the upcoming release of “Furious 7,” and that trend will continue when her other films like “Entourage” continue to grace theaters.
but no one thought she would be wrestling for the WWE. Like she’s done for the women’s side of the sport, Rousey is carving her own path in multiple avenues of big budget media, and it’s one that we may never see rivaled by another MMA star again.
