Surprising Star ALMOST Beats Ronda Rousey On WWE SmackDown

This SmackDown female is surely in line for a mega-push after Friday's WWE booking.

Raquel Rodriguez Ronda Rousey
WWE.com

WWE almost went through with a major shock on Friday's episode of SmackDown.

A beaming Ronda Rousey spoke about her SmackDown Women's Title win over Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania Backlash, then sent out an "Open Challenge" to anybody who fancied a crack at her belt. Newcomer Raquel Rodriguez walked out and accepted the call.

The former NXT Women's Champ went on to dominate much of the 5-6 minute bout before eventually succumbing to a hurricanrana-into-rollup combination from Rousey. WWE let Rodriguez look very strong before the finish, which is encouraging.

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Typically, brand newbies shine for a few weeks before being used as sacrificial lambs for the stars. Remarkably, Raquel is going in the opposite direction - her earliest SmackDown appearances were nothing special, and backstage skits with the likes of Los Lotharios and Natalya were worrying.

Then, boom! WWE booked her to smash Ronda around the ring for five mins before the champ survived with a quick pin. Hopefully this leads to bigger and better things for Rodriguez, because she looked every bit the star here.

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Nobody could've been expecting a performance like this when they tuned into SmackDown.

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood.