According to Fightful Select, back in early December, a Raquel Rodriguez vs. Rousey match was originally planned for this Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble event. However, WWE made a decision to add the title match and Charlotte Flair’s return to the final SmackDown of 2022.
The December 30, 2022 episode Friday Night SmackDown saw Ronda Rousey retain the WWE SmackDown Women’s Title over Rodriguez. Flair then made her surprise return and challenged Rousey, and ended up with a surprise win to capture the title from Rousey.
Fightful Select also noted in their report that taking the SmackDown Women’s Championship off Rousey and putting in on Flair was not the original creative plan. It was further said that creative had put Flair on a “suggested matches” list to work a program with Bianca Belair for the Raw Women’s Championship. Fightful Select further noted there were also plans for a Rhea Ripley vs. Ronda Rousey match during the time Rousey still had the championship belt.
The report from Fightful Select concluded by saying sources told them that creative had presented Rousey with several different ideas, which did not work out. The final decision was then made to move Rousey successfully defending the title against Rodriquez on the December 30, 2022 episode of SmackDown and then put the title on Flair.