Shayna Baszler Says There Was Talk Of Her Winning 2020 WWE Women’s Royal Rumble, Santino Marella Was Originally Going To Be Number 30 Entrant

There had been talks about Baszler winning that year’s Rumble.

An extensive interview with Shayna Baszler was conducted by Chris Van Vliet, and while discussing Baszler’s run in WWE, her appearance in the 2020 women’s Royal Rumble match was brought up.

Baszler shared that there was talk of her winning that match. She was contacted by Paul Heyman, who was the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw at the time, and he told her that she was being removed from the Rumble field because the powers that be felt there was no reason to have Baszler in the match if she was not winning it.

She was later asked to attend the rehearsal for the match, and it was decided to add her back to the field. Baszler was told that she would be protected in the match. She went on to eliminate eight people and was the last person eliminated.

Baszler mentioned Santino Marella appearing in that year’s women’s Rumble as ‘Santina Marella.’ She thinks the original plan was for him to be the number 30 entrant, but said Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque went to bat for her to be in that spot.

“So I was in the (2020 women’s Royal) Rumble, and all I knew is they were talking about me being one of the people that wins it. There’s a handful of people that they’re like, ‘Her, or her, or her…’ Two nights before the Rumble, I get a call from Paul Heyman and he’s like, ‘Hey, I just wanna let you know, you’re not –’ because he was a part of creative at that time — he’s like, ‘You’re not gonna be in the Rumble. But it’s not because we don’t want you. It’s because we’ve decided you’re not gonna win and we don’t want to waste the opportunity. Everything’s still gonna go to plan. You’re just not gonna be in the Rumble.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ NXT had a pay-per-view Saturday. They had their pay-per-views on Saturdays. I go to watch, and then the girls on that pay-per-view that were at Rumble — like they have NXT showing up in the Rumble — were all getting ready to get on a bus to leave the pay-per-view as soon as they were done to go to rehearsal for Royal Rumble… T.R.(Talent Relations) comes to me and they’re like, ‘Shayna, did you bring stuff with you? Could you get in a ring right now and do a rehearsal?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Okay, well, they want you to go to rehearsal tonight at the Rumble.’ ‘Okay.’ So I get on the bus and they’re like, ‘Alright, so we decided to put you back in the Rumble. We’re gonna protect you. You’re still not winning. Here’s the plan.’ So it was like this, yay, I’m in it. Oh no, I’m not. Oh yeah! Okay, this is crazy… I think there was some discussion… because Santino (Marella) was in the women’s Rumble and I think originally, he was supposed to be number 30, and I think there was this big to-do about, ‘Yeah, it’s funny, whatever, but as number 30? The fans, there’s gonna be backlash.’ So, then I got switched to number 30, and I think that was Hunter going to bat for me too; was I think he was like, if Shayna’s not in the Rumble and we put Santino at number 30, everyone’s expecting the NXT Champion to come out and it’s gonna be Santino, that’s gonna be bad, and so I think he kind of went to bat for me to be put back into the Rumble.”

Baszler’s time with WWE came to an end in May 2025. She is doing behind-the-scenes work at NXT and is hopeful it’ll turn into a full-time gig.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.