Somebody check hell for that annoying Disney princess, because it may have finally Frozen over. After 14 months away, WWE’s prodigal son CM Punk is finally making his return to the pro wrestling world – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
It started with a teaser from the self-proclaimed “Second City Saint” early Wednesday morning:
As wrestling fans and eager Chicagoans may know, 4.26 is the date of the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view, emanating live from — you guessed it — the Allstate Arena in Chicago, IL.
Before the interwebs even had the time to speculate, UFC Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey dropped a bombshell of her own:
Rousey, who boasts an undefeated 11-0 record in MMA and is one of the UFC’s top draws, shocked the world by jumping the barricade this past Sunday at WrestleMania 31. With 70,000+ on their feet, she took to the ring with “Dwayne” The Rock “Johnson” to layeth the verbal (and physical) smackdown on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, The Authority.
While it was originally unclear what Rousey planned to do at the upcoming event, UFC President Dana White confirmed with ESPN.com that the 28-year-old star has agreed to a deal for a one-time-only match at WWE Extreme Rules.
“Ronda called me up and told me, ‘Dana I’ve got this offer to do WrestleMania. They want me in the ring with The Rock.’ Of course I gave her my blessing – she’s a huge fan, and I’ve got nothing but respect for Vince McMahon as a businessman.”
“Then she calls me back the next day and says, ‘Dana everyone loved it. It did so well they want me to have a match at their PPV in Chicago.’ It’s at this point I had to take a step back and think about it. It’s obviously great promotion for everyone involved. On the other, is this promotion that we necessarily want as a legitimate fighting organization?”
“At the end of the day I gave my blessing because Ronda is Ronda. But I have to get something out of this as well, and Ronda’s next fight isn’t until August if we can get the dates ironed out. So I called Vince I said ‘I’ll give you Ronda, but you have to let Punk go down there with her. Play it up as a story – whatever – but I need to start generating some buzz around this guy’s first fight.’ So that’s what we’re doing. WWE gets Rousey and Punk for one night, and we get to sell wrestling fans on coming over and checking out what we do.”
Happy April 1st, guys.
