Super Show-Down: Getting Rowdy Down Under

LaToya Ferguson
Ronda Rousey, Sarah Logan (source: WWE)

Ronda Rousey & The Bella Twins (Nikki & Brie Bella) def. The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan)

The Riott Squad are out first, and in a less than anarchic tale of the tape, Renee Young notes that all three women just got matching “11-21-17” tattoos in Melbourne to commemorate the date they debuted as a collective unit, on SmackDown LIVE. See, The Riott Squad aren’t bad—they’re just drawn that way.

(Until they get into the ring and start having a lot of fun inflicting pain on their opponents. That’s kind of actually bad.)

When it comes to Ronda Rousey, on the other hand, Corey Graves calls Melbourne the city where here MMA career “came to a crossroads,” as it’s where her undefeated streak in UFC ended. But Rousey is focused on the now—where she plans to “slap the taste out of [Ruby Riott’s] mouth tonight”—than the then, due to the fight Ruby Riott gave her on this week’s RAW. She plans to embarrass Ruby, and if the rest of The Riott Squad get embarrassed as a result, that’s fine too.

However, there appears to be a little dispute between Rousey and her teammates about who gets to do what embarrassing and when. Before the match can officially begin, Rousey and Nikki Bella have a mini-debate over who gets to start the match (against Ruby), and it ends up being Nikki. That works out, because Nikki gets an early advantage against the leader of The Riott Squad, but when Rousey very clearly wants to be tagged in soon after, Nikki actually tags her sister Brie in instead.

With Brie in, Ruby is able to get the advantage, and she uses that to tag in her buddy Liv Morgan… so Liv can get some revenge for those YES Kicks that knocked her out a couple of weeks ago at RAW.

In fact, you can even hear the Aussie crowd get excited for this, or at least the very idea of what could happen with this match-up. And what happens is Liv rocking Brie with quite the kick, asking her how it feels and generally mocking her. But the mocking is maybe too far, and eventually Brie Bella grabs Liv Morgan’s whole damn blue tongue. Brie then gets into Brie Mode… and tags in Nikki. Even though—again—Ronda Rousey so very clearly is aching to be tagged in.

The Riott Squad really get to work on good tag team action against Nikki too, cutting the ring in half, and also mocking Brie’s patented “COME ON, NIKKI!” battle cry. Nikki is eventually able to get Sarah Logan with a well-timed springboard roundhouse kick, but Ruby is able to take Brie off the apron and Liv is able to get Rousey. Only, in Ronda Rousey’s case, that just makes her angry.

“TAG ME IN, NIKKI! TAG. ME. IN.”

Now, Nikki has no other option but to tag in the RAW Women’s Champion, and she does. And Rousey takes down Sarah Logan, then Liv Morgan, then (last, but not least) Ruby Riott. The Bella Twins end up fighting two-thirds of The Riott Squad on the outside while Rousey takes on the legal opponent (Sarah Logan), but once Rousey’s about to hit the armbar, Liv makes the save for her friend. Then it’s two-on-one, but uh oh: It’s not The Riott Squad who has the advantage. Ronda Rousey flips both Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan, then she double stacks them for stereo armbars, and they both tap out.

Let that be a lesson to anyone who teams with her: Don’t wait to tag the champ in.


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