It was previously reported that a source within the WWE told WrestlingNews.co that “The Baddest Woman On The Planet” Ronda Rousey was set to put the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line against Raquel Rodriguez at the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event in San Antonio, Texas, but with “The Baddest Woman On The Planet” Ronda Rousey no longer the current WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, Royal Rumble plans have obviously changed for her.
According to Fightful Select, the match scheduled for Royal Rumble between Rousey and Rodriguez would instead be moved to an episode of WWE SmackDown a number of weeks back and Rousey would end up losing the WWE SmackDown Women’s Title to “The Queen” Charlotte Flair, who made a surprise return during the show. The report also states that several creative options were presented to Rousey, but none of them ended up working out and that is when the decision would be made to bump up the match and have Rousey drop the title to Flair.
Another match previously talked about for the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble Event was Finn Balor battling WWE Hall of Famer Edge in a Hell in a Cell Match, but that match did not happen and Edge and Beth Phoenix instead made their returns on the show to mix it up with The Judgment Day and continue their feud.
Dave Meltzer reported on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE had to cancel the Hell in a Cell Match between “Brood” Edge and “Demon” Finn Balor due to the WWE Hall of Famer not being able to appear on WWE television to build up the match as he was filming “Percy Jackson and The Olympian” for Disney+, a series where Edge will play Ares, the Greek God of War.
This is what Dave Meltzer said:
“The reason the at one time talked about Brood Edge vs. Demon Balor Hell in a Cell match at the Rumble didn’t happen is because Edge was filming a television show until this past week and thus couldn’t do the WWE television to build up the match. He was filming “Percy Jackson and The Olympian,” a Disney + series where he will play Ares, the Greek God of War.”
