One of the biggest surprises at this year’s Money in the Bank PLE was Shayna Baszler turning on Ronda Rousey. Dave Meltzer has opened up about WWE’s creative plans and confirmed that Rousey would not be in the company for long.

Having returned to WWE last year, Ronda Rousey experienced a few ups and downs before she eventually formed a long-awaited alliance with Shayna Baszler.

Their women’s tag team title run ended abruptly at Money in the Bank after Bazler attacked Rousey from behind, leaving her to defend their titles alone. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez capitalized on this moment and reclaimed the belts. WWE pulled the trigger on a Shayna Baszler turn, and most fans now expect her to have a heated rivalry with Ronda Rousey.

While recapping MITB on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Ronda Rousey has a “hard out” in her WWE contract. The former women’s champion has reportedly already informed WWE about her final date, with sources claiming that she will leave the company before next year’s WrestleMania.

“The thing was, and I don’t know the date, and it might be SummerSlam, and it might be a little bit after. But the deal is that Ronda has a hard out. She gave a date. This is my last date. I remember talking to somebody there, and it was like, well, I know they are going to do this and make the big match for WrestleMania. No, it’s like, her hard out is, they didn’t give me the date, but it’s long before WrestleMania,” reported Meltzer. [17:38 – 18:20]

WWE’s original plan for Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler

It was noted that the idea behind pairing Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler was always to have them feud eventually.

In the same report, Meltzer further stated that Rousey’s untimely injury delayed WWE’s plan for them to first win the Women’s Tag Team Championship before building towards a split.

WWE always wanted Baszler and Rousey to have a clash, and it was added that it’s something Ronda pushed to happen on TV. The members of the Four Horsewomen of MMA are very close in real life, with Baszler being the one who allegedly got Ronda into professional wrestling.

“The point is, whatever it is they are planning to do, they want to do a feud,” Meltzer added. “The whole tag team was to set up Ronda and Shayna doing a feud. Ronda wanted to do this feud with Shayna. She’s got what she wanted because Shayna is the one who basically got her into pro wrestling.” [18:21 – 19:00]