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Ronda Rousey to defend Raw Women’s Championship at WWE Elimination Chamber

By Andrea Hangst

COLOGNE, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 07: The Riott Squad during the WWE Live Show at Lanxess Arena on November 7, 2018 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Marc Pfitzenreuter/Getty Images)
COLOGNE, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 07: The Riott Squad during the WWE Live Show at Lanxess Arena on November 7, 2018 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Marc Pfitzenreuter/Getty Images) /
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Rousey will be facing Ruby Riott at next week’s pay-per-view after dispatching her Riott Squad stablemates this past Monday on Raw.

Ronda Rousey has always vowed to be a fighting champion, and the former MMA star-turned-WWE Raw Women’s Champion will indeed have a match at next weekend’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, despite a looming main event engagement with Becky Lynch less than two months away at WrestleMania 35.

WWE announced on Friday that Rousey will be defending her championship against Ruby Riott, head of the three-woman Riott Squad faction. The reason? Riott’s ducking of Rousey after stablemates Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan were defeated by Rousey in back-to-back matches on the past week’s Monday Night Raw.

This is Riott’s second televised singles WWE title match following her time spent on the independent circuit and in NXT, the first coming against then-SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair last March. Morgan and Logan, meanwhile, will be taking part in the event’s titular event to determine who will become inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.

With Rousey and Lynch set to headline WrestleMania for Rousey’s championship, there’s little chance that WWE will book Riott to win. However, a strong showing by Riott in defeat (and some good crowd response) could push her into a more prominent role on television moving forward, beyond being the head of her faction.

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