Ronda Rousey doesn’t want to talk about it. The WWE Universe may have wanted to hear about it, but they were denied: Rousey would not provide justification for why she took out Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair at WWE TLC and paved the way for Asuka to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship, other than that she warned them not to cross her. What Rousey wanted was a fight, and she decided to start a new tradition in which the champion defends her title every night after a pay-per-view, no matter her condition. She’ll get what she wants, but she’ll have to wait a week, and she’ll be facing a somewhat unexpected opponent: Natalya.

Given that there were no shortage of takers and Stephanie McMahon was “done playing favorites,” Rousey’s next challenger was determined by an Eight-Woman Gauntlet Match that was dominated in the early stretch by Bayley, who defeated a canny Alicia Fox and a house-on-fire Dana Brooke to start the bout. An attack on The Huggable One’s knee from Brooke left her ripe pickings for Mickie James, who eliminated Bayley, though the six-time Women’s Champion was sent packing moments later by an Eclipse from Ember Moon.

Natalya entered the match fifth and ripped off a trifecta of unanswered victories, rolling up Moon and Ruby Riott to bring it down to the wire against Sasha Banks. The Boss capitalized on Natalya’s wear-and-tear to lock in the Bank Statement, but The Queen of Harts powered out of the hold, and Banks’ second attempt to apply it came up empty. Natalya’s Sharpshooter, however, hit its mark, and The Boss submitted to send The Queen of Harts to a make-or-break title match against Rousey.

Speaking of which, the champion came out to the ring to embrace Natalya and shake her hand. She came to Raw wanting a fight. On Christmas Eve, she’ll get her wish. And as a competitor like Rousey should know, nobody fights you quite like your friends.

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon shake up the Raw Women's division and set up a massive Raw Women's Title Match for Christmas Eve.