Ronda Rousey Says Final WWE Match Was a Middle Finger to Fans

Ronda Rousey is making it very clear that her final WWE match was exactly what she wanted, even if fans didn’t fully connect with it.

While speaking to ClutchPoints, Rousey reflected on her SummerSlam 2023 match against Shayna Baszler and admitted the bout was designed more for herself and Baszler than for the WWE audience. Rousey said she loved that the match ended up being her WWE farewell, even though she admitted the fight may have worked better in a setting like Bloodsport.

“I love that fight being my [last] match. I think it would’ve probably gone much better over at like Bloodsport or something like that, but I think it was kind of the best way for me to be able to say goodbye.”

Then the Baddest Woman on the Planet went even further, saying she wanted to leave WWE as a true heel by giving fans a match they might not fully understand or appreciate.

“And being the true heel, I wanted to give the big middle finger to all the fans on the way out and put on the fight that I wanted to put on with my best friend.”

Rousey explained that the match was built as a personal tribute to MMA, with several moments inspired by real fights that she and Baszler loved.

“[I wanted to] have a great time and shove that fight, that match down their throat. Because there were so many moments in that [match,] it was kind of like our wrestling love letter to MMA [where we were] recreating all these moments that happened in MMA that we really loved that people in pro wrestling just wouldn’t recognize.”

That lines up with what Baszler previously said about the match. In 2024, she told Fightful that they had bigger ideas for the bout, but were limited by the SummerSlam venue and what could physically be done inside the stadium.

“I won’t lie, the idea we had, we were a little bit handcuffed just based on the venue. There was no tron, so we knew the people in-house were going to have trouble maybe understanding some of the stuff because you need a camera and a close up of that. We couldn’t get a cage or a fight pit in there because of the rigging in a dome situation is totally different. There was a lot. We tried to work out some other things, it just didn’t work out. We did the best we could with what we had. I’m proud of it.”

Rousey’s comments now add a much sharper edge to the way that match is remembered. Fans criticized the bout at the time for its rules and presentation, but Rousey says that was partly the point. She wanted to leave on her own terms, with a match that meant something to her and Baszler, even if it alienated parts of WWE’s audience.

For now, Ronda Rousey seems perfectly happy with that being her final WWE match. It may not have been what many fans wanted, but in her eyes, it was the right goodbye.