Ronda Makes Easy Work Of Her First Open Challenge Opponent Then An Old Friend Returns
Ah, THE Ronda Rousey Open Challenge. We’ve now seen it three times: Once on Monday Night RAW, and we are now enjoying the second SmackDown Open Challenge. You have to love the confidence of Ronda, who, upon winning the title (again) she gets right back to work defending her belt (as long as she isn’t in Ohio).
Tonight, Ronda and her SmackDown championship, all healed up from her Extreme Rules match against Liv Morgan, visited the much more sophisticated (but not by much) St. Louis, Missouri, where she once again let the WWE Universe know that she was ready to take on all comers. Emma responded.
Emma came out confident, despite coming off a long layoff against the most dominant SmackDown champ in history. Ronda made easy work of her.
Sure, Emma had some flashes of offense, and actually was able to land some of her biggest offensive moves:
But Ronda was able to recover and get clever with some counters to Emma’s offense, which led to a Piper’s Pit and then a slick armbar. Emma tapped, Ronda smiles, all is right with the world.
But then… As Ronda’s walking in the back from her match, chilling, enjoying her time as champion, and old pal Shayna Baszler shows up to congratulate Ronda. Then Natalya of all people gets in her face saying she’d be champ if she could’ve gotten to answer the open challenge (we all know that ain’t true).
Shayna makes quick work of Nattie.