Royal Rumble 2023: Ronda Rousey’s status revealed, new names declared for WWE PLE

For the first time within her active WWE tenure, Ronda Rousey isn’t likely to perform on the yearly Royal Rumble pay-per-view event. This comes after she dropped the Smackdown Women’s Title on the final episode of 2022.

With Royal Rumble just over a week away, WWE has been discussing the plans around the event in recent meetings and it appears they are indeed moving forward with the UFC Hall of Famer.

Fightful Select reports that Ronda Rousey isn’t currently planned for the Royal Rumble PPV. This comes totally in opposition to what the earlier reports have claimed and that she was still scheduled to perform as of December.

However, then she dropped the SmackDown Women’s Championship to a returning Charlotte Flair on the December 30 edition of SmackDown after which WWE must have taken a changed route in direction, “We’re told that as of last week, Ronda Rousey actually wasn’t planned for the Royal Rumble PPV, at the time she lost the title, which can clearly change. Until December, Rousey was scheduled for the show in a singles match.”

The source also added that several veterans have contacted WWE about making Royal Rumble appearances and the company officials were said to be leaning out of what they call “non-traditional surprises.”

Nothing concrete was given about the potential surprise attendees as the creative and producers are still making pitches regarding this. It seems like WWE may remain adamant about not including NXT names just like they did in the 2022 edition.

Fightful Select was told, “WWE was very confident in their women’s roster as is with the hires and call-ups over the last year, and how it would play into the Royal Rumble match.”

Last year, the female roster suffered top names due to mass releases and hence a lot of veteran superstars had to be called in for the Women’s Rumble match including the winner, Ronda Rousey.

Until December, The Baddest Woman on the Planet was still scheduled for the show in a singles match. But perhaps, WWE wants to keep her away from TV for a few weeks so that she could be back with a new mojo, avoiding the ongoing backlash from the audience.

That being said Rousey should be back after Royal Rumble to be included in one of the Wrestlemania storylines. Speaking of Rumble, Smackdown stars like Zelina Vega, Shayna Baszler and The Banger Bros declared their entries to respective Rumble matches.

The #RoyalRumble is almost here!

The following WWE Superstars have newly declared for the #RoyalRumble Match:@ZelinaVegaWWE @QoSBaszler @DMcIntyreWWE #BraunStrowman pic.twitter.com/hjGVxbXMNG

— WWE (@WWE) January 21, 2023

WWE Royal Rumble 2023 premium live event takes place, Saturday, January 28 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Currently, the match card for the show stands as follows,

– Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Kevin Owens

– Pitch Black Match: Bray Wyatt vs. LA Knight

– Raw Women’s Championship Match: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Alexa Bliss (stipulation TBD by Bliss)

– Men’s Royal Rumble Match: Rey Mysterio, GUNTHER, Baron Corbin, Kofi Kingston, Ricochet, Santos Escobar, Seth Rollins, Austin Theory, Bobby Lashley, Omos, Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, and 16 Superstars TBA

– Women’s Royal Rumble Match: Raquel Rodriguez, Liv Morgan, Candice LaRae, Rhea Ripley, Zelina Vega, Shayna Baszler, and 24 Superstars TBA