Ronda Rousey’s surprise appearance at AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view has been confirmed as another shot at TKO.
TKO Group Holdings, formed by parent company Endeavor, is a premier sports and entertainment company responsible for the merger between the UFC and WWE. The affiliation between the two companies has been a success. Both the UFC and WWE have seen revenue growth and financial benefits, though aside from the occasional crossover, fans have yet to see a significant benefit from the deal.
Believing the merger has birthed more greed within the organizations, Ronda Rousey decided to speak out as a voice for her fellow athletes. After the announcement of her blockbuster clash against Gina Carano as the headlining act in Netflix’s inaugural MMA event, Rousey lashed out at TKO for not seeing the value in entertaining her return to the octagon and highlighted fighter pay as a glaring negative within the UFC.
Since her verbal attack, neither the UFC, TKO, nor WWE has publicly issued a response. In a separate attempt to get a reaction from the moguls within each company, Rousey sent them a ‘f*** you’ message after her feature at AEW Revolution.
“I’ve never been to an AEW pay-per-view, so I don’t really know what to expect so much. But I’m thinking like a less restrictive, more adult version of WWE, which sounds like a good time,” Rousey said during the behind-the-scenes look into her AEW debut. “Those are all very good descriptions, I feel.”
Founded in 2019, All Elite Wrestling, better known as AEW, became the first major competitor to WWE and its monopoly over pro wrestling in decades. AEW took a different route to sports entertainment, instead focusing on drawn-out storylines and a more adult-oriented approach, opposed to the WWE’s child-friendly product.
Several superstars have swapped between the two promotions, but Ronda Rousey’s outing, despite being a free agent, was among the most shocking. According to Rousey, her AEW appearance decision was partly down to her hatred for TKO.
“And it’s kind of a cool little bit of a, like, little bit of a f*** you to the TKO group,” Rousey continued. “Which is kind of funny because WWE is on Netflix, but I kind of figured it’d be easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission on this one. Like, I’m promoting your show. It’s fine. We didn’t advertise it. It’s not like we boosted the ratings of it, so it should be fine.”
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