Ronda Rousey says she pitched thumbtacks finish to WWE Extreme Rules match

Ronda Rousey says that she pitched a more extreme finish to her SmackDown Women’s title match with Liv Morgan at WWE Extreme Rules. 

In a gaming stream on her YouTube channel, Rousey says that she pitched for Morgan to powerbomb her into thumbtacks, and for Morgan to pass out in her armbar face down into the tacks, but that unspecified WWE officials nixed the idea. 

“I pitched the finish to be on thumbtacks. [Liv] would put down thumbtacks, she’d powerbomb me onto the thumbtacks. And as a repeat of our finish from before, I’d go for the armbar on the thumbtacks, but they’d start counting the pin. And I’d have to push up onto my one shoulder, like, into the thumbtacks to keep the armbar on. And Liv would be biting her hand, trying not to tap, and then pass out face down into the thumbtacks with her hand there to protect her face. But they said, ‘We can’t do thumbtacks any more, like, legally, we can’t purposely injure people and cut their skin and stuff.’ 

Rousey says that she also pitched pins or screws for her finish idea in place of tacks, but that hose ideas were turned down as well.

“So I was like, what about little maple leaf pins? They said no. I was like, what about screws? They’re on their side on the ground? They said no.”    

Rousey also talked about the baseball bat that she and Morgan used in their match, describing the care that she had to take not to injure Morgan in swinging the weapon. 

“It’s a bat, you know? You kind of have to be careful how you hit people with it,” Rousey said. “And I felt bad, because Liv was in a position where I had to be whacking her with a bat. And I’m like, ‘If I hit her in the back I could really mess up her spine, if I hit her in the rib I think I’ll break a rib, so I’ll just keep hitting her in the ass.’ So I kept whacking the s— out of her butt. So I kind of felt bad, her butt must look bad…” said Rousey. 

Rousey defeated Morgan at Extreme Rules to reclaim the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Morgan had defeated Rousey at Money in the Bank on July 2 to win the title after cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase she won earlier in the night. Morgan also won a rematch at SummerSlam on July 30.