February 5, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Rebirth of the XFL, Ronda Rousey signs WWE contract, more

After everyone denying there was any deal for weeks, and Ronda Rousey insisting she wasn’t going to be there, the biggest female fighting drawing card in history suddenly showed up at the Royal Rumble and it was announced she had signed what was called a multi-year full-time contract.

Rousey didn’t appear in the match, but walked out as winner Asuka was in the ring with the company’s two champions, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. She came out to Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation,” which was her UFC entrance music (and as a trivia note, was a song used in the 80s by both Ted DiBiase and Bill Dundee after they had made heel turns), wearing a leather jacket that was legitimately given to her by the children of Roddy Piper, and a “Rowdy Ronda Rousey” T-shirt modeled after the 80s Piper shirts.

Rousey took her “Rowdy Ronda” nickname in MMA from Piper, largely because one of her judo coaches, Gene LeBell, was also the martial arts instructor decades earlier of Piper. 

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