Shayna Baszler says Ronda Rousey went to the office and demanded their run as a tag team.
Baszler and Rousey have been friends for years, and while they aligned on-screen in 2022, they didn't become a full-on team until 2023. The duo competed in the Women's WrestleMania Showcase before Rousey took a few weeks away from the company. She then returned on the May 15 episode of WWE Raw. On the May 29 episode, Baszler and Rousey won a four-way match for the vacant WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
Speaking with Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat, Baszler discussed teaming up with Rousey and stated that the former SmackDown Women's Champion went to the office and demanded their run as a tag team. She described how the company had delayed their previous requests, and Rousey put her door down.
“Ronda is Ronda, right. She’s been main title, she main-evented WrestleMania. She still gets one of the loudest pops when we walk out. This was something she demanded. We’d been asking for it forever, but she finally put her foot down and went to the office and said, ‘Listen, we’ve been asking for this forever. You keep telling us, ‘After, after, after this [and] this.’ I honestly don’t know if she hadn’t done that, if they ever would have got to it. I wasn’t in a position yet to be elevated to a Ronda level, so the fact that Ronda said, ‘No, stop. I’ve done this. I want to do this because this is why I started wrestling.’ So I think that’s huge. She could be main-eventing SummerSlam. She doesn’t have to be where she is, which is elevating these titles," Baszler said.
Rosenberg noted that he believes working in the tag team division elevates Rousey's character. Baszler responded by describing how Rousey brings eyeballs, and she always has. She also stated that it was cool to have Rousey demand to work with her as a friend, as it showed that she wasn't out for herself.
“Yeah, it’s just a direction that I don’t think they would have looked at, just because Ronda is who she is. As much as, love her or hate her, she brings eyes, and that’s the way she’s always been. She was that way in MMA. I at least want people to understand, this is happening because she demanded it. She demanded to work with me as a friend, so it’s cool to have someone who truly isn’t out for themselves. In show business, that’s so rare, so it’s very cool," Baszler said.
Following the title win, Rousey stated that WWE's women's tag team division was dismally shallow. Click here to see what she had to say.
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