Report: Ronda Rousey requested Brian Kendrick’s WWE return

Many people were surprised to hear that Brian Kendrick returned to WWE to be a producer for some of the matches this past weekend at Survivor Series 2022. Kendrick hasn’t been seen since he was fired by AEW over anti-semitic comments he made in a 2011 video that surfaced shortly after he was announced for a match against Jon Moxley.

Kendrick was reportedly trying out for a backstage producer role in WWE at Survivor Series, and one of the matches he worked on was Ronda Rousey vs. Shotzi.

On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer added a new detail to the story, reporting that Rousey was the driving force behind WWE’s decision to bring in Kendrick:

“Brian Kendrick was Ronda Rousey’s original wrestling trainer...she asked for him to be brought in for her match with Shotzi. So he was in on Saturday. And it was not a hire. You could say it was a tryout. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t a tryout. But it really wasn’t like a normal tryout. It was more Ronda Rousey asked for him to help produce. Jason Jordan also produced it, but she asked for Brian to be brought in. So they brought him in.”

The championship fight between Rousey and Shotzi was generally regarded as the only bad match on the Survivor Series card, prompting obvious jokes about Kendrick’s tryout not going well.

Rousey received most of the backlash from fans, however, as #FireRondaRousey was actually trending on Twitter during last night’s (Nov. 28) episode of Raw. Rousey’s work during her current run in WWE is clearly worse than it was during her first stint in 2018-2019, and lots of folks didn’t hold back when expressing their frustration with what they perceive as her undeserved push in WWE.

Do you see a difference in Ronda’s pro wrestling skills in 2022 compared to her first run in WWE, Cagesiders?