Ronda Rousey cast a scathing review of her former home, the UFC, during the press conference for her fight against Gina Carano streaming on Netflix in May. 

Rousey famously left UFC after sustaining back-to-back stoppage defeats to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, having carved her way to the top of the bantamweight division with an undefeated record until those points. 

Then, she made the jump to professional wrestling with WWE, though when she had left the promotion in 2024 she was less than complimentary of that company as well – which now co-exists with UFC as parts of TKO. 

And as she would attest to during the MVP press conference, no longer is she a supporter of the MMA brand she used to represent. 

“It used to be that UFC was the best place that you could come in combat sports to make a living and be paid fairly,” Rousey said. “It’s one of the worst places to go. It’s why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere. It’s why they’re champions like Valentina [Shevchenko] are selling pictures of their t*****s on OnlyFans.” 

Rousey added, “These people, a lot of them at the ground level, they can’t support their families. They’re living in poverty fighting full-time. And this company just got $7.7 billion. Like there’s no reason that they can’t afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage.”

She said there was no reason for an aspiring athlete to look towards MMA as gainful, especially when compared to other sports. “They’re bleeding talent because of their short-term greed,” she continued. “They’re thinking about the shareholders and they’re not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport.”

Lita’s feud with Stratus was iconic for many reasons, and their main event match for the WWE World Women’s Championship on the December 6, 2004 edition of “Raw” is one of those reasons. While Lita had competed in a main event match on “Raw” a few years prior, her bout with then-champion Stratus is often considered the first time women main evented a weekly show, as they were the entire focus of the bout.

The women had been feuding for years at that point, and both had been honing their skills during an era where it was difficult for women to get any TV time when it came to matches. While their match wasn’t long by any means, they proved themselves in numerous big spots.

Stratus was wrestling with a “broken nose” and protective face gear, which she used as a weapon. The women tumbled out of the ring after locking up to start, but neither seemed fazed and they were quickly back outside after Lita sent Stratus over the top rope with a back body drop. She followed up with a suicide dive and took a nasty bump, landing on her head just a few years removed from neck surgery.

The champion was back in control, but Lita met Stratus on the ropes and hit a superplex. It was Stratus who regained momentum first, however, but Lita quickly rallied with a power bomb to combat Stratus’ strikes in the corner.

In the end, it was Lita to hit the Twist of Fate, then a moonsault, to pin Stratus to win her second World Women’s Championship. The match is considered one of the best of the time period, and one that inspired many female wrestlers of today. It’s remembered fondly by fans, especially women, of a certain age.

Just one year ago, IYO SKY walked out of WrestleMania 41 with the WWE Women’s World Championship and a ton of momentum after her, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair delivered what many felt was the best match of the weekend. Now, however, SKY finds herself on the outside looking in for WrestleMania 42, having lost the Women’s World Title months ago. In addition, her former WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship partner Ripley has one of the biggest matches lined up for Mania, having secured a WWE Women’s Championship match against Jade Cargill following her victory in the Women’s Elimination Chamber match.

But all hope is not lost regarding SKY making one of Mania’s two nights. Bodyslam+ reports that SKY is currently scheduled to be part of the big event, wrestling in a one on one match against Asuka. Like other WrestleMania plans, however, the situation is fluid, as there’s plenty of “internal support” regarding WWE adding Kairi Sane to the match in order to make SKY vs. Asuka a three-way match.

SKY, Sane, and Asuka were formerly stablemates in Damage CTRL, though their alliance ended in September when Asuka and Sane betrayed SKY only two months after SKY dropped the Women’s World Championship. SKY feuded with Sane and Asuka for months afterward, eventually aligning with Ripley to win the Women’s Tag Team Championships from the duo in January.

Since then, however, SKY hasn’t interacted with either Sane or Asuka in ring. While the two were both part of the #1 Contender Gauntlet for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship this past Monday on “Raw,” they were not in the ring at the same time, as SKY was eliminated before Asuka entered the match. The separation of the two sides is said to be by design on WWE’s part, in order to give the rivals space before ramping it up against during WrestleMania season.

It’s been a minute since WWE has run a Saturday Night’s Main Event special, the last one coming just a week before the Royal Rumble in January. But while WWE may be busy with bigger matters at the moment, including WrestleMania 42, they still have plans for the long-running special, with rumors suggesting it could take place on May 23 in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Instead, the show will take place a little further north. In a Thursday morning press release, WWE announced that the next Saturday Night’s Main Event would indeed take place on May 23, but would run out of the Allen County Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana instead of Nashville. While the promotion has consistently run live events out of Fort Wayne over the last decade, it will be the first TV taping of any kind the city has received since November 2014, when WWE aired an episode of “SmackDown” out of the Coliseum.

This will not be the first time WWE has taped Saturday Night’s Main Event in Indiana, having run SNME XI and SNME XXXI out of Notre Dame, Indiana and Terre Haute, Indiana in 1987 and 1992 respectively. The former event was headlined by George “The Animal” Steele taking on “Macho Man” Randy Savage in a Lumberjack match, while the latter featured new WWE Champion Bret Hart defending the title against Papa Shango. 

The special will come at a busy time for WWE and wrestling in general. It will serve as the middle of three big events for WWE in a three week span, beginning with WWE Backlash in Tampa Bay, Florida and concluding with Clash In Italy on May 31. While not serving as direct competition, the special will also take place one day before AEW Double or Nothing is held in Queens, New York.