Shayna Baszler says Vince McMahon in real life is nowhere near as bad as the monster that everybody builds up in their heads.
Shayna Baszler was a staple of the NXT Women's Championship scene when she was called up to Monday Night Raw to feud with Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36. There are obvious stylistic differences between WWE’s main brands and the NXT show. because Shayna Baszler brings such a unique style to the ring, there would be a learning curve when adjusting to the main roster.
Speaking with Renee Paquette on her podcast, Oral Sessions, Baszler broke down her early conversations with Vince McMahon and said that, contrary to popular belief, he is actually “so nice” and always offers genuine critiques.
“When I started wrestling on Raw he gave me a talk that was like, ‘Look you have something different to offer, you have a unique look. The thing you have to start learning now that you're on Raw is that your work rate is shown on pay-per-view and at NXT so don't get so hell-bent on weekly raw TV because that's where we build the story for the work rate that you can do on a pay-per-view.’ So he's like, ‘You have this thing. I don't want you to do any pro wrestling, got it?’”
Shayna says that her first couple of squash matches on Raw were a success in the eyes of Vince McMahon but Vince would make her refilm me a match with Natalya during one of the early episodes of Monday Night Raw at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, which flabbergasted Baszler who was still new on the brand.
After the redo was a success, Baszler says she spoke directly with Vince McMahon, promising him that she would find her groove on the main roster and make him money.
“So I go and I sit outside Vince’s office for a long time [...] I don't even know what I wanted out of it. I think it was just to get it off of my chest but I was like, “Listen I know I have something that no one else has. I know I can bring a certain legitimacy to this that no other female has. I don't know how to figure it out week-to-week yet, just give me a chance. You'll never have to worry about me being in shape. If you want me to go out there and wrestle the same match a hundred times, I'll do it. I'll figure it out, just give me time. I'm just letting you know I'm aware I don't have it. Just give me time, I'll make you money.’”
Shayna Baszler would say that by the time she started wrestling Sasha Banks and Bayley in the summer, she began to feel more comfortable with her style of wrestling and stopped trying to impress Vince and that is when Vince finally told her she was “getting it.”
Currently, Shayna is once again a WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside Nia Jax. She will have an opportunity to show off her work rate when she returns to NXT on March 3 to defend the Championships against Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez.
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