Reports suggest Ronda Rousey will leave WWE for good after WrestleMania 35
- Ronda Rousey could leave WWE forever after WrestleMania 35, according to a prominent industry journalist.
- Rousey will only have been in WWE for a year, having made a number of headline-grabbing performances last year.
- WrestleMania is WWE's signature event of the year.
- The company could use the 2019 show, and Rousey's name, as a platform to further the career of another popular women's wrestler - Becky Lynch.
- WrestleMania 35 takes place in April.
Ronda Rousey could be on the cusp of leaving the WWE forever, according to prominent industry journalist Dave Meltzer.
If true, Rousey's career in sports entertainment will have been a short-lived but electric one.
Rousey, 31, left mixed martial arts in 2016 having won the Strikeforce and the UFC bantamweight world championships. After a wildly-successful run in UFC, she joined WWE, and celebrated her contract signing by slamming her boss through a table last year.
She made her WWE debut in April 2018, and "blew the roof of the joint" in her very first wrestling match. She is expected to wrestle at the WWE's signature event this year, WrestleMania 35, but will bow out shortly after, according to prominent WWE writer Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
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"There is a very good chance that Ronda Rousey will be finishing up with WWE at WrestleMania," Meltzer said.
He then added that WWE could use Rousey's final show as a way to further the career of emerging star Becky Lynch, a popular women's wrestler who calls herself "The Man" and regularly tweets the UFC fighter Conor McGregor.
"If that's the case, she would likely put Becky Lynch over more likely then Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, given that would be what the fans would want," Meltzer said.
Meltzer's report follows a December article from Forbes, which suggested that Rousey could be leaving the company soon.
It is unclear what Rousey has planned post-WWE, but ESPN reported last year that she was looking to start a family.
WrestleMania 35 will take place on April 7 at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The show is yet to be finalized, but Rousey will be expected to feature prominently, with Meltzer anticipating some kind of match-up against Lynch.