WWE Star Returns After Years To Answer Ronda Rousey's Open Challenge

On October 29, 2017, WWE announced that Emma (Tenille Dashwood) had been officially released from her WWE contract. On Friday, exactly five years to the day, Emma would make her comeback to the promotion. 

The veteran Aussie Superstar answered the Open Challenge for Ronda Rousey's "SmackDown" Women's Championship, stepping out to a remixed version of her old theme song, but still sporting the aviator sunglasses that she wore during her last run. On commentary, Michael Cole put over Emma in a big way. "Listen, if you're not familiar with Emma, she was one of the most popular Superstars in the history of NXT, and tonight she returns to WWE!"

Although Emma ended up tapping out to Rousey's Armbar, she held her own during the match, delivering a lot of offense on the champion. In fact, Rousey had to resort to underhanded tactics to put away her mystery opponent, pushing Emma towards the referee and hitting her with an illegal eye rake, before hitting Piper's Pit and locking in the Armbar. The finish to the match also further solidified Rousey's heel turn. 

Earlier on Friday, a report from PWInsider all but confirmed that Emma would be the one to answer Rousey's Open Challenge. As noted earlier, Emma officially became a free agent in July after wrapping up her three-year stint with IMPACT Wrestling, where she was a one-time Knockout Tag Team Champion. While there was speculation of Emma returning to WWE, several reports suggested that nothing was set in stone with regard to her future in pro wrestling. 

It remains to be seen if Emma will be a regular on the "SmackDown" brand going forward. WWE has yet to officially assign her to a specific roster.