A recent report sheds light on the “complex political issue” that caused Ronda Rousey’s ROH appearance.
On November 17th, Ronda Rousey shocked the world when she appeared at the Ring of Honor tapings immediately following AEW Dynamite and Collision. She teamed with longtime friend Marina Shafir to take on the team of Athena and Billie Starkz. The same tag team match took place at Pro Wrestling Revolver and went to a no contest on November 16th.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed that there was more to Rousey’s ROH appearance than first reported.
“Ronda Rousey appeared on the AEW show in Los Angeles, but I wouldn’t consider her a live free agent since she is not looking at wrestling regularly right now and her doing the ROH show was only basically a favor to alleviate a complex political issue and help her friend Marina Shafir.”
Meltzer added that Ronda Rousey’s ROH appearance was kept very quiet ahead of time, and also shed light on why the star appeared for ROH and not AEW.
“Nobody knew about it until word got out that Rousey was in the dressing room the day of the show and why this was on ROH and not AEW. It may have been part of the agreement between Tony Khan and Rousey or Khan’s idea because Athena and Starkz are ROH wrestlers. What happened was the match was booked for Revolver because Rousey wanted to team with Shafir before she goes to have another child.”
Tony Khan Had To Approve Ronda Rousey Working With ROH Stars
According to the report, Tony Khan must approve all matches involving ROH talent, and he allowed Rousey to work the Revolver show with Athena and Starkz as long as she would also appear in Ring of Honor. Jon Moxley was said to be in favor of her appearance as he is close friends with Revolver owner Sami Calihan.
“It was put together late in the game since Khan had to approve of all bookings of his talent, and he at first didn’t want his talent doing the match in Los Angeles the same week he had three shows in the market. Moxley was behind this as he’s close to Sami Callihan who runs Revolver and his high on Shafir.
“Khan worked it out to where he allowed the match on the Revolver card but only with a DQ finish and in return the agreement was they would do a rematch on the ROH taping in Los Angeles the next night and do the finish with Rousey winning there.”
The negotiations were reportedly full of tension, but in the end, things worked out for the best. Meltzer notes that there is no word on whether or not Rousey has any interest in working for Tony Khan again, but that some believe she should in order to help elevate Marina Shafir. Ronda Rousey is not signed to AEW, and her appearance was a one-off at this time.
“There was a lot of tension regarding negotiations but it was basically conceded that as far as the matches went, it all turned out great in the end. Whether Rousey would ever work for Khan is unknown going in nor after the fact. There was pressure put on her to do so and to help Shafir get some spotlight.”