Tony Khan is said to have personally decided to have Ronda Rousey compete in Ring of Honor instead of AEW last month.
Just weeks after making her unannounced return to professional wrestling at an independent event, Ronda Rousey surprised fans at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles last month when she made her surprise Ring of Honor debut at a TV taping.
Rousey emerged victorious in a tag team match alongside her close real-life friend Marina Shafir over Billie Starkz and ROH Women’s World Champion Athena. Their clash was actually a rematch from a Wrestling Revolver event the night before which ended in a DQ when Athena hit Rousey with her title belt.
In the weeks following, it’s been reported that the match came together primarily due to a complex political deal made between Khan and Wrestling Revolver itself as well as Ronda Rousey doing a personal favor as a friend of Shafir’s.
Earlier this week, Ronda Rousey herself addressed a potential future in AEW following her ROH debut. The multi-time WWE Women’s Champion admitted that it’s unlikely she’ll be appearing in AEW as she is now putting her full-time focus on raising her family.
Tony Khan Made The Call For Ronda Rousey To Debut On ROH
Even more details have since come to light on Rousey’s surprise ROH debut with Dave Meltzer reporting in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Tony Khan ultimately decided to have Ronda appear in ROH as opposed to AEW.
Meltzer went on to speculate that Khan may made the decision in order to appease Rousey, who reportedly only wants to do small local shows for fun as opposed to any major wrestling events.
“As noted, right now there are no plans for her to wrestle here. As far as why it was on ROH on Honor Club and not put on Dynamite, Collision or Rampage, that was Tony Khan’s call.
Rousey did indicate not wanting to do any big shows, just local shows for fun, and did the ROH match politically because Khan was going to let his talent do such a big show in Los Angeles when they had three shows in the market the same week. Khan may have suggested ROH rather than television because she said she didn’t want to do a major show.”