With Survivor Series in less than two weeks, we’re at the beginning of the long road to The Road To WrestleMania 35. That means speculation and rumors about what that show is going to look like are rampant. One rumor that died down for a while is now coming back, which is that a women’s match featuring Ronda Rousey may main event the show. Roman Reigns is gone for at least a while, which means this will be the first WrestleMania in five years that he hasn’t main evented. Rousey seems a likely star to push into that spot in his absence, plus giving women the main event will be another “historic first,” and WWE loves those.
Who she’ll face if the rumor is true is much more up in the air. The original rumor was Charlotte Flair, and she still seems like a likely contender. Charlotte’s current storyline after losing her feud with Becky Lynch is about regaining her confidence and climbing back to the top, which could be perfectly timed to climax with a WrestleMania title shot. On the other hand, Rousey has made it clear that she’d like to face Sasha Banks. As reported on WrestlingInc, she told the PWI podcast that she’s not sure she’s ready for the Boss yet, but she’d like to be:
I would really love to wrestle Sasha Banks. I think I’ve just been so impressed watching her work, and see her in the back, and see her work. And I was already a fan of her’s before. I think that we would be able to make something great together and I think she has given a lot of women their best matches ever. But I almost feel like I’m not at the right level yet for her. I really think that we could make something really special and really great, but I don’t know that I’m at the level that’s ready for that yet and I don’t know if the company would ever like that, but in a perfect world, I would definitely love that for sure.
The other question that affects who Ronda faces at WrestleMania is whether she’ll be a face or a heel by then. She’s been solidly presented as a babyface since arriving in WWE, even though some of the things she says about other women are pretty rude (but of course, WWE likes rude babyfaces). However, her MMA friends and compatriots Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, and Marina Shafir are nasty heels down in NXT. If WWE wants to unite the MMA Horsewomen as a faction, turning Ronda heel seems like it would be easier than turning those three face.
The other reason it seems like Ronda might turn heel is that she’s about to face Becky Lynch at Survivor Series. As we know, Lynch is the most over person in WWE right now, and anybody who faces her is going to get massive boos, especially if they beat her (and Ronda’s yet to lose). Depending on where that goes, Becky’s another possible WrestleMania opponent, as long as they find a way to differentiate the matches (or not — we all know that sometimes WWE just likes to do the same thing again).
There’s a lot of things that could happen between now and WrestleMania 35. It will be exciting to see how things go, and how Ronda and her storyline develop as we move towards her second year in WWE.
