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On the latest episode of WWE SmackDown, Shotzi Blackheart competed in a Six-Pack Challenge to determine who will be Ronda Rousey's next opponent for the blue brand's Women's title in the upcoming Survivor Series: WarGames. After a chaotic ruckus among the competitors, the former NXT star bested them all.
After the match, she was confronted by Shayna Baszler and Rousey backstage, where The Queen of Spades put her to sleep via a rear naked choke as the champion mocked the challenger.
Now that her match is all set, one might wonder why she became Rousey's challenger in WWE's upcoming premium live event. In this list, we look at five plausible reasons why the match turned out as such.
#5. Shotzi became Ronda Rousey's opponent because she capitalized on the situation during the match
The Six-Pack Challenge featured Xia Li, Lacey Evans, Raquel Rodriguez, Sonya Deville, Shotzi, and former WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Liv Morgan. It was a riot of a match as a lot of action was happening all over the place.
During the match's final moments, we saw Rodriguez pulling out a table outside the ring as she planned on taking Deville out with it. However, Morgan took a dive into them that knocked them out, including the former champion. As for the table, it was left unscathed to be used for another day.
Both Shotzi and Evans managed to get inside the ring. It's worth noting that the latter took quite a beating from other competitors and was still shaken. The former took advantage of it, delivered her finisher, Never Wake Up, and pinned her for the three count.
#4. It's high time for her to win in a contender's match
Shotzi had participated in numerous tag team and championship contender matches by the time she made it to WWE's main roster. Unfortunately, she always ended up either getting eliminated or losing the match
Prior to her recent win, she and Raquel Rodriguez challenged Damage CTRL's IYO SKY and Dakota Kai last month for the Women's Tag Team Championship but lost.
The former NXT star's Six-Pack Challenge victory finally broke her losing streak, as this could help boost her morale to compete.
#3. WWE could be prepping up for an epic feud between Shotzi and Ronda Rousey
Shotzi and Ronda Rousey have had several encounters since Blackheart got called up to WWE's main roster.
Back in June, during an episode of SmackDown, Shotzi interrupted Ronda Rousey during a promo segment and challenged her. The then-champion Rousey accepted the challenge and won the Championship Contender's Match convincingly.
They briefly met yet again over a month later. This time, Blackheart was the one cutting the promo when Rousey – still livid after losing the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship to Liv Morgan – came rushing towards the ring as she tried to get the mic from Shotzi. Rousey then proceeded to give her an armbar.
Fast-forward to the present day, the aforementioned backstage altercation between Shayna Baszler, Ronda Rousey, and Shotzi took place, which fired up their feud even more.
With that in mind, it may well seem that the heat between these two will continue even after their match at this year's Survivor Series: War Games is over.
#2. She loves to go at it with Rousey
She is really into teaming up with other wrestlers, as this was evident in most of her matches. Shotzi debuted on SmackDown alongside her then-tag partner Tegan Nox. Their team got disbanded, though, when Nox got drafted to RAW in 2021.
Albeit of such preference, she also likes to go lone wolf, as she revealed in a Mirror interview that she would like to go toe-to-toe against Ronda Rousey. She said she'd love to have a feud with the current WWE SmackDown Women's Champion since she's (Rousey) is constantly the top dog.
She stated that she'd love to get inside the ring with Rousey and have a huge pay-per-view match against The Baddest Woman on the Planet.
#1. Shotzi could be off to a major push
There's no denying that Shotzi is a talented WWE Superstar. Despite suffering numerous losses, the level of intensity whenever she's performing inside the squared circle hasn't waned a bit.
Triple H and other higher-ups might have noticed it and decided to finally give her the much-needed push she's been waiting for. She'd better be ready come Survivor Series: WarGames. Her fight against Ronda Rousey is her biggest match to date.
Do you think Shotzi has a chance to defeat Ronda Rousey? Sounds off in the comments section below.
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