Ronda Rousey reportedly suffered a broken hand in the WrestleMania 35 “Winner Takes All” main event with Charlotte Flair and new SmackDown Women’s Champion and RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio.
There’s no word yet on details of the injury but Meltzer noted that this was scheduled to be Rousey’s last match with WWE for the time being as she’s been expected to take time off.
There are a lot of rumors going around on the finish of the match but Meltzer noted that at one point Rousey was going to lose to Lynch by submission. A lot of people was for the submission but a lot of people were also for Rousey losing by pinfall. In the end, it was decided that a pinfall would be he best direction, not the submission.
The idea behind the pinfall was that Rousey has never submitted in a WWE match. She also never submitted in MMA or judo. There’s no word yet on why the finish was switched to a pin, but lots of people internally fought against Rousey losing by submission. It was said to be a split, but people were fighting against the loss by submission. It was speculated that the idea of a wrestler submitting Rousey is a negative compared to a wrestler pinning her. It was also speculated that Vince McMahon could be protecting Rousey for a potential return because then she would have an issue with a fluke pin.
Regarding the rumors on Rousey being upset at the referee botching the finish, Meltzer noted that those are not true. Meltzer added that Rousey was not supposed to get her shoulders up, but for whatever reason they came up at the finish. It was also noted that it was strange that WWE called attention to the shoulder coming up, which could have been a Vince call or something Corey Graves did on his own. The replay showing this could be an indication that it was a call from the production truck. Meltzer also said the only screw-up was that Rousey was supposed to be “really pinned” as opposed to getting defeated with the fluke pin. He added that the finish could cause fans to think Rousey is staying for a rematch, but that’s not the current plan as of this week.
Lynch has been announced for tonight’s post-WrestleMania RAW and the Barclays Center has Rousey advertised, along with the WWE Events page, but there’s no word yet on if Flair will be appearing on the show.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
