Ronda Rousey has suddenly become a very busy woman. The UFC Hall of Famer and former WWE Champion made a completely unexpected return to professional wrestling on Sunday, appearing at AEW Revolution 2026 nearly three years after her last WWE match.
Rousey, 39, came to the aid of her old friend Marina Shafir, who shocked the Los Angeles crowd by jumping into the ring following Shafir’s loss to former AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm. Rousey and Storm then faced off in the center of the ring before being separated by security. On her way to the back of Crypto.com Arena, Rousey also interacted with Jon Moxley, the leader of AEW’s Evil Death Knight stable, which Shafir also belongs to.
Rousey, of course, is currently preparing for an equally shocking MMA return against women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano at Netflix’s inaugural MMA event on May 16. Rousey and Carano kicked off promotion for the fight last week with a noteworthy press conference in which Rousey lambasted the UFC as “one of the worst places to make a living and get paid fairly.”
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“They’re losing talent because of short-term greed,” Rousey said of her MMA roots. “They’re thinking about the next quarter. They’re thinking about shareholders, not about their responsibilities as future stewards of the sport.”
Rousey, an Olympic medalist in judo who turned her talents into “lightning in a bottle” as a professional boxer, played an integral role in UFC CEO Dana White opening the door for women to compete in the UFC. She defended the UFC women’s bantamweight championship six consecutive times from 2013-15, becoming one of the most famous athletes of her generation before switching to WWE in 2017 and competing on and off until 2023.
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Rousey has been critical of the WWE since her departure, telling The Untitled last year that she had no intention of returning to professional wrestling again.
For a woman who suddenly finds herself in combat sports headlines, time will tell whether Rousey’s surprise appearance at AEW Revolution on Sunday night was just a one-off or a sign of things to come.