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Inglewood, CA - March 10: Ronda Rousey during a press conference at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. The main event of Most Valuable Promotions card features main event former UFC champion Ronda Rousey (12-2) against MMA trailblazer Gina Carano (7-1) at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA, on Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images via Getty Images
Ronda Rousey is suddenly a very busy woman. The UFC Hall of Famer and former WWE champion made a thoroughly unexpected return to professional wrestling on Sunday, appearing at AEW Revolution 2026 nearly three years after her final WWE match.
Rousey, 39, came to the aid of her longtime friend Marina Shafir, jumping into the ring to the shock of the Los Angeles crowd following Shafir's loss to former AEW Women's Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm on the pay-per-view card. Rousey and Storm then faced off in the center of the ring before being separated by security. On her way to the back of the Crypto.com Arena, Rousey also interacted with Jon Moxley, the leader of AEW's villainous Death Riders stable, of which Shafir belongs to.
Rousey, of course, is currently preparing to make her equally shocking MMA return against fellow women's trailblazer Gina Carano on Netflix's first-ever MMA event on May 16. Rousey and Carano kicked off the promotion for the bout with a noteworthy press conference this past week, at which Rousey lambasted the UFC as "one of the worst places to go" to "make a living and be paid fairly."
"They're bleeding talent because of their short-term greed," Rousey said of her old MMA home. "They're thinking about the next quarter. They're thinking about the shareholders and not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport."
An Olympic medalist in judo who parlayed her gifts into a lightning-in-the-bottle run as a prizefighter, Rousey famously played an integral role in UFC CEO Dana White opening the doors for women to compete in the UFC. She defended her UFC women's bantamweight title six consecutive times from 2013-15, establishing herself as one of the most famous athletes of her generation, then transitioned to the WWE in 2017, where she competed off and on until 2023.
Rousey has been critical of the WWE since her departure and last year told Uncrowned that she had no intention of ever returning to professional wrestling again.
Time will tell whether Rousey's surprise appearance Sunday night at AEW Revolution is a mere one-off or a sign of things to come for a woman who suddenly finds herself all over the combat sports headlines.
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