Shayna Baszler likes to make people look away when she's brutalizing her opponents.
Baszler, a former MMA fighter who has competed in the UFC, incorporates this background into her approach to wrestling, and it shapes her in-ring moveset. Baszler is known for her submission holds, especially her Kirifuda Clutch finisher. She also often hits arm stomps and other moves that can be hard to watch.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Baszler discussed her approach to submission holds and noted that, earlier in her career, she bent an opponent's arm bar, and someone in the front row couldn't watch. She then stated that she realized her ability to spark that kind of reaction was unique, so she focused on it. Baszler noted that she looks out at the crowd because she likes to see the people who have to turn away.
"I think just the way I slow down how I do submissions. I remember actually, it was before I
signed, doing this where I bent someone’s arm really fast and twisted it. There was a woman in
the front row that couldn’t watch, had to watch between her fingers. I was like, ‘Oh, this is a
thing.’ ‘Cause like anyone, I wanted to jump off the rope and do cool stuff, but Josh would not
allow any of that. He tried to drill it in my head, ‘Nobody can do what you do. So why would you
do what everyone else does?’ That was the moment where it clicked for me, where I was like,
‘Oh, this is a thing?’ It’s one of my favorite things. When I’m doing that in the ring, you’ll see me,
instead of looking out there like normal; you’ll see me looking right there because I want to see
those people that have to turn their head away. I love that," Baszler said.
Baszler previously described how she wants to come off more natural in her promos. Click here to see what she had to say.
Click here to check out Baszler's comments about how wrestling in WWE is her black belt in catch wrestling.
In a previous interview, Baszler described how Nia Jax helped her behind the scene. Check out her comments here.
