At tonight’s Monday Night Raw in Charlotte, NC, the first match for WWE’s Survivor Series on November 18 in Los Angeles was announced. Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey will be facing the Smackdown Live Women’s Champion Becky Lynch in a non-title champion versus champion match.
At WWE’s Evolution pay-per-view on October 28, Ronda Rousey defeated Nikki Bella in the main event to retain the Raw Women’s Championship. Evolution’s semi-main event saw Becky Lynch defeat Charlotte Flair in a 28-minute Last Woman Standing match to retain the Smackdown Women’s Championship.
At the end of Evolution, all of the wrestlers from the event stood beside one another on stage as the show closed, with Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch in the middle of the frame. The two champions also had an interaction during the Evolution post-show while being interviewed by Charly Caruso where Lynch congratulated Rousey and told her she would “be seeing her soon.”
The match will also be Rousey’s first pro-wrestling match at Staples Center. Rousey competed at Staples Center while in the UFC on February 28, 2015, where she submitted Cat Zingano via armbar in just 14 seconds in the main event of UFC 184 to retain her UFC women’s bantamweight championship.
Becky Lynch has only competed at Staples Center once prior, at a house show on June 18, 2016, when she teamed with Natalya, Paige and Sasha Banks to defeat Charlotte, Dana Brooke, Eva Marie and Summer Rae.
The match at Survivor Series is also significant in that will be the first meeting between Lynch and Rousey, who has not been on the same brand together. Over the past few years, WWE has used Survivor Series as a strictly Raw versus Smackdown themed-show. In 2017 the Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair defeated the Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss at the event.
The 2018 Survivor Series will be the 32nd edition of the event and the first to be held in Southern California. It will be taking place on Sunday, November 18 at 3:00 p.m. PST and will air live on the WWE Network.
