WWE Elimination Chamber 2018: Preview and predictions

Ronda Rousey officially signs her Monday Night RAW contract

With just four matches on the card and the outcome of the main event 99.9 percent clear, WWE needed something to help hype up this pay-per-view, and they’ll get some help by having Ronda Rousey on hand to sign her exclusive contract to become a superstar on Monday Night RAW. I didn’t hide anything about how her showing up at the Royal Rumble bothered me (still does) but seeing how it now seems that she’s not going to be anywhere near the title picture at WrestleMania, I’m a little more on board now, and this actually has the potential to be an entertaining segment. I mean, it is a contract signing in WWE, so there’s bound to be some fireworks.

Rousey looks to be headed toward a mixed tag match at WrestleMania 34 as she and a partner are likely to face Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, a duo with whom she has history in that segment with The Rock at WrestleMania 31. With Stephanie being the Commissioner of Monday Night RAW and storylines about to get started for the biggest show of the year, this already has the built-in backstory to get things rolling.

It’s heavily rumored that WWE is still trying to get The Rock to come to New Orleans for this match, but that seems very unlikely at this point. That leaves an opening for a partner for the former UFC champ and while that may not be known just yet — there are certainly plenty of names floating around, including RAW GM Kurt Angle — there’s plenty to get this started.

Prediction: It’s likely that both Kurt Angle and Stephanie McMahon will be on hand for this segment. If they are going to go with Angle, who obviously has plenty of his own history with Stephanie and Triple H, then they could have them argue about who actually made this deal happen. But the main focus here will definitely be Stephanie, who could just bring up the incident at WrestleMania 31 and say that even though she’s still not happy about what happened that night, this is still what’s best for business. Even if nothing physical happens here, the tension between the two will definitely be there. With so much time and so many episodes of RAW left before New Orleans, it doesn’t make sense for Triple H to get involved just yet, but Ronda and Stephanie will get into it one way or another on Sunday night.