Shayna Baszler explains why she chose to turn on Ronda Rousey, what she thinks their future would have been as WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, and how she's preparing for their impending fight at SummerSlam 2023.
Shayna Baszler specifically requested a fight against Ronda Rousey at WWE SummerSlam 2023. Several weeks beforehand, Rousey & Baszler were poised to potentially become the most dominant WWE Women's Tag Team Champions in history. Still, Shayna chose to throw that all away by turning on Ronda Rousey at WWE Money in the Bank 2023.
Speaking with News 18, Baszler explained why she turned on Ronda Rousey and why exactly she says Rousey ruined wrestling for her.
"I'm not denying that Ronda is history-making. She's one of the best fighters that's ever come along, she changed the landscape for women in fighting," she said. "Dana White himself said women were never going to be in the UFC. She's the one that changed it for us. I don't deny all that. I was fighting almost a decade before. It would be easy for me to whine and cry about how MMA was, and she got noticed, and all this, but that doesn't bother me at all because she's Ronda, right?
"So on our team, as far as MMA goes, she was our leader, she was the face of our team, and I didn't have a problem with that," Baszler continued. "As it comes to professional wrestling, I'm the one that made her fall in love with that. I'm the one that got signed first. She saw how happy I was. She said it herself in interviews. She saw how happy I was and wanted to give it a try. She has come to me for advice as it comes to pro wrestling. So, as far as wrestling and WWE is concerned, it should be me that's the leader. It should be me that's the face. This is my thing. When I was in NXT, and Ronda was separate from me doing her own thing, I had a lot of success. I had probably the most dominant run with that title. I had no problems. It just seems like ever since she's come back. I've just been her sidekick. She's done nothing to change that. She's done nothing to give me a push forward and say, 'This is Shayna's thing.'"
Ultimately, Baszler says she understands and stands by the idea that she and Ronda Rousey as a tag team would have been unbeatable. However, she decided she did not want to continue being a sidekick, giving up championship glory.
"Here's the thing, me and Ronda were the tag champs. I still say to this day, I don't think anyone was beating us for a long time, but it just came down to, 'Do I want to go another couple of years of defending these titles and being Ronda's sidekick, or is it time to finally do my thing?' I just knew she wasn't gonna give me that, you know? So yeah, this is what I love to do, and I need to take that," she said.
Regarding preparation for the upcoming fight, Baszler says it is largely a mental adjustment for her as she knows that no matter what happens, she will get hurt in the process of hurting Ronda Rousey on August 5 in Detroit, Michigan.
"As far as physically and in the ring, we know each other inside out. Every day, our job was to go to the gym and fight each other," Baszler says. "We were sparring partners. So going into it, knowing that every advantage I have against her, she also has against me. So really, this game-planning has been just really changing my mentality, trying to train my mind to get to this different stage of intensity because, as I said before, even if I win, it's gonna hurt, she's gonna cause me a lot of pain, I'm gonna cause her a lot of pain. No one's coming out of this unscathed, win or lose. So, it's understanding that and accepting that.
"Anyone that's played sports understands if you roll your ankle at home, working in the garden, that hurts, and it puts you out for the day, but in the middle of a game, you get to a different place mentally, and you can fight through that," she adds. "So it's just being able to flip that switch on command when I need to. So really, the training and the game-planning has been all about getting to that different level of mentality."
Thus far, the rules for the upcoming fight between Shayna and Ronda have not been specified. Fans can check out the full card for SummerSlam here. Fightful will have live coverage of the event on Saturday, August 5.
Elsewhere in this interview, Baszler made it clear that after she defeats Ronda Rousey, championship gold will be in her future soon enough. Learn more here.
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