Ronda Rousey Might Be In Line To Headline Historic WWE WrestleMania 34

Ronda Rousey is back in the news for WWE as officials are reportedly looking into bringing in the UFC star for aspecial appearance at WrestleMania 34.

Credit: WWE.com

Ronda Rousey appeared at WrestleMania 31 alongside The Rock.

Depending on how Rousey is used, should she appear at WWE's biggest show, it could be a potentially historic event featuring the first-ever women's match to main event WrestleMania.

A potential Horsewoman vs. Horsewoman matchup—pitting Rousey and her fellow UFC training partners, including new WWE-signee Shayna Baszler, against Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte—is WWE's worst-kept secret.

The match was most recently teased during the Mae Young Classic, and since then, Charlotte has not been shy about her desires to main event WrestleMania alongside Ronda Rousey.

Both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have publicly given their blessing to a potential Ronda Rousey in-ring appearance, and it seems like only a matter of time before the former Women's Bantamweight champion reaches some kind of agreement with WWE.

A major attraction like Rousey seems to be the biggest driver to the WWE Network, which recently reported 1.52 million paid subscribers in the third quarter of 2017, a 4% increase from Q3 2016, and slightly down from 1.63 in Q2 2017.

Prior to the release of WWE's latest earnings report, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline estimated that WWE was looking to land in the 1.52 to 1.59 million range of paid subscribers. If so, this would indicate that WWE's strategy of high-profile pay-per-view matchups throughout the third quarter—like the No Mercy pay-per-viewJohn Cena vs. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman—was successful.

WWE landed on the lower-end of this spectrum but can continue to build on its slow-climbing count with the addition of Rousey during subscriber season.

Associated Press

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Ronda Rousey confronts Stephane McMahon at Wrestlemania XXXI, on Sunday, March 29, 2015 in Santa Clara, CA. 2015 marks the first year Wrestlemania will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area, being made available to viewers in 177 countries via the WWE Network. (Don Feria/AP Images for WWE)

The brand-name value of WrestleMania alone, whichForbes ranked the 6th-most valuable sports brand of 2017, has played a major role in the year-over-year growth of WWE Network, which Vince McMahon noted had grown 8% during Thursday's 3Q 2017 earnings conference call.

But a first-time WWE match featuring Ronda Rousey would add the very crossover appeal that will generate a healthy jump in WWE Network subscribers come 2018.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2017/10/27/ronda-rousey-might-be-in-line-to-headline-historic-wwe-wrestlemania-34/#456b90931864