Smackdown teased and hinted at a lot of new story directions, so we’ll see what’s
new for Ronda Rousey, changes for MMM, A big potential return, and much more
Let’s start things off with Ronda Rousey
Summerslam marked the beginning of a new era for Ronda Rousey
Before Summerslam, Ronda’s character was a very one dimensional, typical babyface character
But thanks to legitimately getting screwed over by Liv Morgan and the referee, Ronda
developed into his anti-hero character
At first, everyone thought Summerslam was a heel turn for Ronda Rousey, but she has
been booked sort of like a tweener in the weeks that followed, so that’s why we’re
giving her that label of being an anti-hero
She’s not that same babyface character she was for the beginning of 2022, but she’s
not full blown heel either
She’s going up against WWE authority figures and just dominating everyone in her sight,
so she’s still getting massively cheered
This edge that Ronda has added to her character since the events of Summerslam has definitely
brought her character back to life in a huge way
Ronda’s new dominant, anti-hero arc continued in the fatal five way match to determine the
number one contender for the Smackdown women’s title
The other four participants didn’t really have much of a story or momentum going on
in recent weeks, so Ronda Rousey was the only winner that made sense and that’s exactly
what happened
Ronda dominated the match and won the entire thing in order to book herself another date
with Liv Morgan at Extreme Rules for the Smackdown women’s title
Although it makes sense story-wise for Ronda to get another opportunity since she was robbed
at Summerslam, fans are already feeling a bit mixed on seeing this match again because
it basically presents the same narrative that we saw with Summerslam
That same narrative being that Liv Morgan will not got a clean pin over Ronda Rousey,
so how will this Extreme Rules match play out?
Liv already rolled up Ronda at Money In The Bank, then Liv had that screwy pin over Ronda
at Summerslam, so not that many options left in order for Liv to sneak past Ronda Rousey
again
So that’s why fans feel like the story is right back to where it was at heading into
Summerslam, Ronda will not be cleanly pinned by Liv Morgan, so what shenanigans will play
out in the final moments of this match?
Well there’s a couple of fan theories floating around involving some outside interference
The first being the return of Charlotte Flair
Charlotte hasn’t been seen in months since Wrestlemania Backlash and the last time Charlotte
was seen, she was getting beaten by Ronda for the Smackdown women’s title
So can Charlotte return at Extreme Rules to get her revenge on Ronda Rousey while also
putting the current champion, Liv Morgan, on notice?
That’s definitely a possibility
Charlotte probably helps Liv Morgan escape Ronda Rousey with a disqualification, but
obviously with Charlotte being back, liv’s day as champion could be numbered by that
point
So an epic return and beatdown on Ronda and Liv from Charlotte Flair could be in play
The other scenario involves Shayna Baszler
WWE teased on Smackdown that Shayna could play a role in Ronda versus Liv as well
Ronda is feeling very confident and cocky right now heading into this match with Liv
Morgan, and it was Shayna who told her backstage to take Liv Morgan serious and be careful
with her
Shayna is obviously speaking from experience because she was just cleanly pinned by Liv
Morgan, so Shayna is basically telling Ronda that Liv is for real and not to overlook her
But Ronda doesn’t pay much mind to Shayna’s comment, but Ronda did sound like she was
teasing the idea of linking up with Shayna in the future
Everyone has been waiting to see the tag team of Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, that’s
a duo that has women’s tag team champions written all over them
So you can go either way with Ronda and Shayna’s friendship, maybe it continues to get stronger
and they come after those women’s tag team titles
Or maybe they slowly start drifting apart in the upcoming months and that’ll lead
towards a feud between the two of them
But no matter what route they go with, it does look like WWE is hinting at something
happening soon between Ronda and Shayna
So it’ll be really interesting to see what happens after Extreme Rules
Will Liv Morgan still be champion, will Ronda Rousey regain the title, will Charlotte Flair
return, or will Shayna get involved?
A lot of potential routes to go in there for the Smackdown women’s title
—————
A big potential teaser for the end of Max Dupri’s character was just dropped by WWE
Max Dupri was obviously known in NXT as L.A. Knight
However, his character and persona fully changed when he was called up to the main roster
They had repackaged and renamed him to Max Dupri, this male model character that had
his own modeling agency
They tested out the gimmick and act for several weeks with Smackdown dark matches, and Vince
McMahon and WWE liked what they saw, so they brought the act to Smackdown
They even created the character of Maxxine Dupri, who is the sister to Max
So they had this entire faction of their two models and in-ring talent, while Max and Maxxine
sort sit back in the managing role
But ever since Triple H took over, the fans had assumed he would eventually put MMM to
rest and bring L.A. Knight back
So that’s what fans have been waiting for over the last few weeks and we were finally
given the first teaser of Max potentially reverting to his former persona
It all comes from a WWE digital clip that shows Maxxine and the rest of MMM looking
down and out following their loss on Smackdown
Max Dupri comes into frame and tries to lift up their spirits, telling them that they have
to ‘go through the day, to get to the night’
Max paused for a second while he was saying that line, it looked like something had clicked
in his head, he softly said “yeah” and walked off screen to end that bonus backstage
segment
So the way he took that long pause in between the sentence to say “night”, fans just
feel like it was the first sign of confirmation that the L.A. Knight character will return
following the fallout of MMM
So if L.A. Knight does eventually comes back, what will happen with MMM?
Well the good thing is that Maxxine is there, so you can let L.A. Knight do his own thing
and still possibly keep Maxxine around to lead MMM
We haven’t heard or seen much from the Maxxine character, but it does look like that she
enjoys scouting talent
So even after Max Dupri is gone, maybe Maxxine will really step up to the plate in her brother’s
absence and try her best to keep the agency going and scout for more talent
Maybe she brings in more men and even women to her version of MMM, it’ll be a good way
to keep her around let her get even more experience as well
Or if Triple H really doesn’t plan on going anywhere with MMM, maybe Maxxine and rest
of the MMM members will be repackaged as well
It is gonna be strange though to the casual fans because these characters were introduced
as brother and sister and now they could potentially be getting new names and different characters
It may get a bit confusing there for some fans, but hopefully the story makes the character
changes make sense
So we’ll have to wait on that, but big changes could be coming to the MMM faction
But what are your thoughts on today’s stories with Ronda Rousey becoming the new number
one contender for the Smackdown women’s championship and all of the potential changes
coming to MMM?
Leave your comments below, don’t forget to subscribe with all notifications on, and
leave a like if you enjoyed!
Thanks for watching guys