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Ronda Rousey is the most dominant female athlete on the planet, and after defending her UFC bantamweight title with a stunning 14-second victory over Cat Zingano and improving her record inside the octagon to 11-0, Rousey has nothing left to prove. Rousey has made it clear that there’s no challenger in UFC that stands a chance against her.
On Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, Rousey sat ringside for WrestleMania 31, and midway through the show made a surprise appearance in the ring with The Rock, creating one of the best WrestleMania moments in years. Rousey and The Rock clashed with WWE executives Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, and the UFC star dispatched two of the most powerful people in the business with an effortless toss and a devastating armbar.
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According to MMA Mania, UFC boss Dana White approved Rousey’s appearance at WrestleMania well in advance of the show, and Rousey is still expected to fight Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in August. Still, Rousey’s stellar spot at WrestleMania and her subsequent hint that she isn’t finished in the pro wrestling business have given WWE fans a glimpse of what the UFC star could bring to pro wrestling, and she seems like a perfect fit.
Rousey joining WWE would not only bring a national spotlight and a new audience to the Diva’s division — it would give Rousey a platform to show what she can really do every week on national television. In UFC, Rousey’s talent is almost hard to appreciate — her fights are behind a paywall and are typically over in a matter of seconds.
The possibilities for Rousey in the WWE are almost endless. There’s an ongoing debate whether or not Rousey could beat a male UFC fighter, but in WWE where that barrier has already been broken (Chyna won the WWE Intercontinental championship twice), Rousey could conceivably vie for the WWE World Heavyweight title. Rousey’s introduction to WWE (she made Triple H, a 13-time world champion, look like a scrub) perfectly sets her up to break new ground in the WWE and achieve things that no woman has ever done before.
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Rousey would also benefit financially from the move. Disclosed salaries in the UFC are shockingly low, and there’s still a large gap between Rousey’s power as a celebrity and her actual UFC paychecks. For her win over Zingano at UFC 184, Rousey took home $130,000 (she was guaranteed just $65,000 in salary, and earned a $65,000 bonus). Rousey also pocketed an undisclosed cut of the pay-per-view revenue, which according to Bloody Elbow would bring her earnings up to $1 million dollars for the night.
If Rousey fights twice in 2015 and doubles that amount, she’d still be earning less than a fifth of what Serena Williams earned in prize money in 2014, and five million less than Danica Patrick, according to Forbes.
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WWE doesn’t disclose salary figures, but Rousey would easily command a seven-figure annual salary in WWE, earn bonuses from merchandise sales and endorsements, and still be able to do side projects like her role in Furious 7. There’s one huge long-term bonus to leaving the octagon, too. Although the punishment pro wrestlers take inside the ring is very real (Ken Shamrock said earlier this month that his WWE career was more physically grueling than his UFC career), the sport is designed to keep the performers relatively safe. Your opponent isn’t actively trying to knock you unconscious once the bell rings, and Rousey could work in the WWE for a decade or longer if she wanted to.
There’s no rush for Rousey — the door to the WWE will likely still be open years from now if she continues to fight in UFC — but with nothing left to accomplish inside the octagon, why stay?
