Charlotte Flair's successful title defense against Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 38 was one of the more surprising results of the two-day event.
Rousey entered the match as a major -1000 favorite to defeat Flair, who was listed as a +550 underdog. On top of that, Rousey had never lost a singles match cleanly in WWE. Most signs pointed to a victory for The Baddest Woman On the Planet, but when all was said and done, The Queen managed to retain her SmackDown Women's Championship.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote that the plan "is for this to be a long-term program and thus the belief was Flair had to win the first match, even if Flair got the better of Rousey as well in the angles leading up to it."
This was only the second pinfall loss of Rousey's WWE career. The first one took place in the main event of WrestleMania 35, where Rousey and Flair lost a triple threat match to Becky Lynch. The latter defeated Rousey albeit in controversial fashion to become the new Raw and SmackDown Women's Champion.
The next WWE pay-per-view, WrestleMania Backlash, will run on May 8 in Providence, Rhode Island. The WrestleMania Backlash card will presumably feature several rematches from the WrestleMania 38 show, and that could very well include a Rousey-Flair championship bout.
Many fans expected Rousey and Lynch to square off at WrestleMania 38, but WWE is reportedly planning to run the highly-anticipated rematch at WrestleMania 39 next year. WM 39 will be a two-day event (Apr. 1-2) at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Ronda Rousey Should Win The Rematch
Rousey has lost to Flair once, but it only makes sense for the former UFC star to avenge the WrestleMania defeat by getting past The Queen in their rematch (whenever that may be). Rousey rarely takes clean losses, and it wouldn't make much sense for her to lose twice in such a short span. WWE's best call would be to have Rousey even the score in their next bout, possibly at WrestleMania Backlash.