Saturday night at Royal Rumble in St. Louis, former Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey returned to action for the first time since WrestleMania 35, entering the 30-women battle royal at No. 28 to a massive ovation before she and Charlotte Flair stood as the final two competitors in the ring.

Rousey eliminated Flair to win the Royal Rumble for the first time, and in the process, earned the right to challenge a champion of her choosing for their title at WrestleMania 38 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Veteran wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer has indicated that the plan is for Rousey to battle Flair, the current SmackDown champion, at the two-day event in early April, meaning Saturday’s clash is likely to be the start of a much longer program between the two, with Rousey expected to remain an active competitor through to WrestleMania 39, where she’ll run it back with Becky Lynch.

The former UFC champion had an incredible first year and change in professional wrestling.

After making a couple different appearances here and there over the years, including joining The Rock in the ring at WrestleMania 31, Rousey made her in-ring debut at WrestleMania 34, teaming with Kurt Angle to defeat Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, with Rousey forcing McMahon to tap out to her signature armbar. She was quickly inserted into the title picture, engaging in a feud with Alexa Bliss.

Following a four-month build, she won the Raw Women’s title from Bliss at SummerSlam in August, kicking off a 231-day run with the belt, the second longest such reign in the title’s history. The high point of her tenure on top was her extended feud with Lynch, culminating in Rousey, Lynch, and Flair becoming the first females to headline WrestleMania when the trio faced off in a triple threat match at WrestleMania 35.

Lynch won the match to claim the Raw Women’s title, pinning Rousey before going on to establish a record for the longest title reign, while the former mixed martial artist and Olympic medalist pressed pause on her career in sports entertainment to focus on her family. She and husband Travis Browne welcomed their first child together, a daughter, four months ago.

The pop Rousey received when Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” started pumping through the arena on Saturday tells you everything you need to know about why WWE brought the former champion back into the fold.

There is no denying that she radiates a different kind of energy and greater amount of star power than most everyone else on the roster, in part because of her established athletic bona fides.

Rousey won a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing before transitioning to mixed martial arts. After winning a pair of amateur bouts, she turned pro in early 2011, signing with Strikeforce and rattling off four straight submission wins in under a minute, including a victory over future Bellator featherweight champ Julia Budd.

That run of success made her a rising star in the sport and her “speak my mind, no B.S.” approach landed her a championship opportunity opposite Miesha Tate, who bristled at fighting the comparative neophyte, kicking off a longstanding feud that has never fully been extinguished.

Rousey submitted Tate in the first round to claim the title, defended it once, and then broke the gender barrier to the UFC Octagon, joining the premier mixed martial arts promotion and transforming into a global superstar as she continued to dominate the competition. She successfully defended her UFC bantamweight title six times, all by finish, to run her record to 12-0 before finally suffering her first defeat.

She was a massive star before setting foot in the WWE ring, but much like when Brock Lesnar returned to the WWE following his run in the UFC, Rousey’s success in the Octagon instantly catapulted her to massive heights when she did venture into professional wrestling full-time.

Despite her time away, the 35-year-old remains a legitimate superstar — a decorated athlete who excelled right out of the chute with limited training, and instantly hit that sweet spot where half of the audience loved her, the other half hated her, but everyone wanted to see her wrestle.

Three years later, that appears to still be the case, as for every person thrilled to have “Rowdy” back in the fold, there is someone frustrated that the former champion waltzed back into the championship picture, which likely takes an opportunity away from competitors that have persevered and thrived throughout the COVID era.

It also doesn’t help that the returning superstar seemed to get salty when the WWE universe shifted its allegiances midway through her impressive rookie campaign, and has added fuel to those fires.

Rousey rankled fans on a couple different occasions during her time away, explaining that she would not return to WWE in a full-time capacity because it takes away from the time she’s able to spend with her family, which has grown since then, as well as calling members of the WWE universe “ungrateful idiots” for the way they chanted for Bray Wyatt following his release for the company, suggesting they didn’t cheer for him enough when he was around.

Following Saturday’s event, Rousey had a stilted backstage interview where she said the only thing she cared about was going back to her bus to “love on her little baby,” adding that her “priorities have changed.” She then remarked about the massive reaction she received, stating, “you can expect me not to fall for it this time.”

It seemed to position Rousey as working a gimmick that builds on some of the sentiments she shared while she was away and the general “none of this is real and I don’t love it the way you want me to” approach she’s exhibited from the outset, which could be outstanding, but also has the potential to be disastrous.

Some will love the realism, the dispensing of pretense, while others probably aren’t going to take too kindly to someone that doesn’t exhibit the same love for “sports entertainment” the competitors pushed out of the title picture by her return have shown throughout their careers, and especially during the last two extremely challenging years.

Monday on Raw, the returning Rousey spoke flatly about “Rebecca” not deserving her attention, calling herself the biggest star in the division before Lynch came out to see whom Rousey was going to choose to face at WrestleMania. The two had words and the segment ended with “Big Time Becks” getting hip tossed and Rousey declaring she’d announce her decision on Friday at SmackDown.

There wasn’t much of a reaction to her bland promo on Monday and someone with a little more moxie could continue to play the hyper-realistic, “I don’t’ care about any of this” angle with no affectation or energy and probably make it work, but Rousey doesn’t have the charisma to pull it off.

Although she has the athleticism and physical abilities to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the ring, the returning star gets clobbered every time she tries to spar with one of her championship contemporaries on the microphone, which tends to make her character and angles less compelling.

Whether fans love it or hate it, Rousey is back.