EXCLUSIVE: Rousey vs. Flair set for WrestleMania Night 1
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
Ronda Rousey will challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship on Night 1 of WrestleMania 38, FOX Sports has exclusively learned.
Back in January, Rousey earned the right to challenge for the title of her choosing by winning the Women’s Royal Rumble match. It wasn’t long, however, before the former UFC star zeroed in on Flair, whom she has yet to defeat in WWE, as her opponent.
There is no word at this time on whether their match will close WrestleMania Night 1 (or WrestleMania Saturday, as WWE will call it moving forward).
WrestleMania 38, billed as "the most stupendous two-night event in WrestleMania history" is set to take place April 2-3 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
Additional matches set to take place at this point include:
- Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar — Winner Takes All for both titles
- Becky Lynch (c) vs. Bianca Belair — Raw Women’s Title
- Rey and Dominik Mysterio vs. The Miz and Logan Paul
- Edge vs. an opponent to be determined
This is the third year in which WrestleMania has been presented as a two-night event, yet it will be the first with a full-capacity crowd. WM36 took place at the WWE Performance Center in front of no fans due to the start of the pandemic, and WM37 was held at a reduced capacity for the safety of those in attendance.
Coincidentally, the most recent WrestleMania to take place in front of a full-capacity audience was headlined by Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey, as well as Becky Lynch, in a triple-threat match for the Raw Women’s Championship.
After the match, Rousey took a sabbatical from WWE in order to start a family, and in September of last year, she gave birth to her first child.
"Since the day I knew my due date to have Pō, I was determined to return to WWE at Royal Rumble 4 months postpartum," she tweeted after making a surprise return at the event. "Watch out b----es, cause #WrestleMania I’ll be 8 #ThisIsntEvenMyFinalForm."
For more developments on the story between Rousey and Flair as "The Road to WrestleMania" continues, tune in to Friday Night SmackDown this week LIVE on FOX at 8 p.m. ET.
