Ronda Rousey is still beating herself up over how her SmackDown Women’s Championship match against Shotzi at Survivor Series went down.
On the most recent edition of The Baddest Stream on the Planet, the SmackDown Women’s Champion explained what broke down in her match with Shotzi at Survivor Series and how the planned DDT spot she pitched didn’t go according to plan.
“Let me explain what happened,” Ronda Rousey began. “I actually pitched that spot because I love that she does that. We couldn’t practice in my ring because the ropes are too loose. We couldn’t practice it when we got to the arena because there are these big cages. I’ve taken DDTs before, but I’ve never helped anybody over to the floor, so they were like, ‘Okay, you have to have your hand here on her leg, the other hand on her hip, and you’re going to guide her over.’
“Everyone was so focused on ‘guide her over, guide her to the floor,’ that it was literally all that was on my mind when it happened. When she went over it was like, ‘guide her.’ When she was down, I was like, ‘Oh fuck. Ahhh, just go to where you’re supposed to go.’ I fucked it up because I was so concerned with keeping somebody safe and a lot of time, when you see me do something for the first time, it’s the first time I ever did it. I was really concerned with keeping Shotzi safe and I made it look bad.
“You know what, sorry. Apparently, I deserve to be fired or burned. It reminds me of Monty Python, ‘BURN HER!’ There weren’t calls to fire anybody when Madcap Moss and Big E were spiked on their heads. ‘BURN HER ANYWAY!’ I’m so sorry that I was so concerned with keeping someone safe that I made the bump look bad.”
Beyond the botched DDT on the apron, what bummed Rousey the most was she felt like she let Shotzi down with their match when things were cut for time.
“What really bummed me out was, my favorite thing in the match was turning around a hostile crowd,” Ronda Rousey continued. “We’re in Boston, of course they’re hostile because they’re angry at the fact that they live there. Right when we got them turned around with the ‘holy shit’ and the crossbody into the fans, ‘F*ck yeah, we’re turning it around, we got all the awesome shit coming up.’
“Then, Shotzi rolls me in the ring, and they’re like, ‘Get out of there. Plan B, get out of there, we’re out of time. We gotta go.’ ‘What?’ She was going up and I had to run up and throw her down and throw her into the armbar and get out of there because that’s what they were telling me on the mics because I guess the match before us went over by six minutes and they were concerned about going over on time.
“The match after us was a three-way, so they wouldn’t be able to communicate with each other to make the match shorter and the match after that was WarGames and they couldn’t cut that out. It was the only place they could get that time back. I was bummed though because we worked on that match for two weeks and we were really excited about it. I felt like I really failed Shotzi.”
Rousey went on to say that she wanted to showcase Shotzi’s arsenal and show everyone how great she really is. Rousey said one of the main reasons she came back to WWE this time was to work with new talent, noting Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez as a few of them. In closing, Rousey said that she wishes people would just the whole match and not just one spot, adding that she will make it up to Shotzi in the future.
“I’m bummed though. I feel like I failed Shotzi. Sorry. I’ll do better,” Rousey stated. “I’ll make it up to her. I’ll let her beat my ass.” [H/T: Fightful]
What do you make of Ronda Rousey’s comments? Would you like to see her get another crack at a match with Shotzi in the future? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
