What if Nikki Bella beats Ronda Rousey at Evolution?

At WWE’s all-female PPV Evolution, Ronda Rousey will defend the Raw Women's Championship against Nikki Bella. The match carries as some intrigue as a bit of an intergenerational dream match between the current face of women’s wrestling and one of the bigger stars of the generation leading up to the current Women’s Revolution. The match also represents a clash of style and culture. Bella was at the fore of female stars who embodied the “Diva” era, hired for their looks with wrestling as a secondary consideration, whereas Rousey is as legitimate as they come as an MMA great who has jumped over to the world of pro wrestling.

The general consensus is that Rousey will win this match. While Bella is a big enough star to reasonably get some offense in on Rousey and pose a meaningful challenge. She’s not a full-time talent, though, and Rousey has both enough credibility and buzz behind her that she should be expected to win in a scenario like this.

But what if Nikki Bella does win? This article takes a look at five things that would mean.

#5 Brie Bella makes the difference

Brie Bella would figure prominently into a Nikki Bella win.

Even if WWE were to push Nikki Bella hard, it’s still difficult to imagine a scenario in which she’d be booked to defeat Ronda Rousey cleanly at this point. When it comes to imagining outside interference scenarios for Bella to benefit from, though, one need look no further than her twin sister Brie.

Brie and Nikki have been booked as partners in crime for the overwhelming majority of their WWE runs, and that includes the two of them turning heel together against Rousey in the build to Evolution. If Nikki were to pull off this win, then, it’s to be assumed that Brie will be a significant factor in that outcome. Maybe it’s Brie using a foreign object on Rousey when the ref is down, causing a key distraction, holding the Baddest Woman on the Planet’s leg to keep her from beating a countout loss, or pulling the Bellas’ classic Twin Magic. There are no shortage of ways that scenario could play out.

#4 The Horsewomen rally against Team Bella

If Ronda Rousey needs backup, she does have some friends just waiting for the call(up).

In addition to Brie Bella, Nikki Bella has a previous connection with Alicia Fox as the Team Bella faction, besides the fact that WWE could spin any number of alumni from the Bella Twins’ heyday as allies to help out against Ronda Rousey. And who could Rousey call on for backup that night, or in the ensuing Survivor Series PPV—set up for teams of four or five to go head to head?

While Rousey has a kayfabe alliance already established with Natalya, she also has some pretty serious backup waiting in the form of real-life Four Horsewomen friends – Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir, and Jessamyn Duke. All three are working on WWE developmental deals, and at minimum Baszler is booked for Evolution in an NXT Championship match. This PPV could be a natural point to introduce the whole gang to the WWE audience.

#3 Nikki Bella full-time

Nikki Bella may start working regularly again in WWE, at least for a while.

Nikki Bella mostly vanished from the WWE landscape after she and John Cena won their mixed tag team match at WrestleMania 33 and proceeded to get engaged in the ring. Her real-life relationship drama with Cena has taken centre stage in her reality TV appearances since. She only recently started appearing in the ring again in the build to Super Show-Down and then Evolution.

If Bella were to defeat Rousey—and particularly if that meant winning the Raw Women’s Championship, we could expect for her to be working a more full-time schedule for at least the next month or two while she has the title. Some fans might balk at it, seeing Bella as a step back from today’s stars, but she is capable in the ring, and arguably more natural in this heel role, which could mean entertaining TV for the women’s division, at least in the short term.

#2 A rematch

Ronda Rousey wouldn't be done with Nikki Bella after one loss.

While Ronda Rousey has signed on to WWE as a full-time talent and she regularly works not just PPVs but a run of the mill episodes of Raw, the company understandably still treats her as something special. After all, she’s that rare bona fide celebrity who chose to come to WWE, and who carries with her the capacity to lure her personal fans over to WWE’s squared circle in a way most WWE performers simply can’t.

One aspect of Rousey as a wrestler that WWE hasn’t figured out yet, though, is how to at once keep her special while also creating doubt about whether she’ll win a match. Having her outsized against Nia Jax and working with a kayfabe injury against Alexa Bliss were reasonable steps to add a sense of drama for her matches, but Rousey has only been working matches in WWE for half of a year, and it looks as though WWE is running out of those kinds of options.

Bella cheating to win would at least change roles for Rousey from dominant champ to hungry challenger. While we’d have to assume Rousey would win the rematch, it would nonetheless be a reasonable enough match with a different story for WWE to build toward.

#1 Paving the road to Rousey’s heel turn

A big loss could be the start of a heel turn for Ronda Rousey.

If Ronda Rousey were to lose her Raw Women’s Championship, it opens up the possibility that the humiliation or the degree to which she was screwed in the process might justify her to start a heel turn. After all, she has played nice so far, not really being the one to pick any fights beyond the scope of normal WWE competition. She hasn’t cheated and she hasn’t attacked anyone outside the ring (or at least not without meaningful provocation).

Rousey losing could be ground for her to say screw it—I tried to do the right thing and it didn’t work, now I’m going to embrace the dark side. Whether she went heel as a solo bully character or fronting a Four Horsewomen stable, it would, in either case, befit her Baddest Woman on the Planet persona and ability to talk trash brilliantly when she doesn’t have to portray a nice character.