The Queen of Spades chats with Fightful about her connection to shoot wrestling, Billy Robinson, and more.
Shayna Baszler is an unapologetic badass in between the ropes, relying on her technical wrestling training to dissect opponents in the squared circle. However, much like most wrestlers, Baszler was initially hoping to do more of the flashy maneuvers when she transitioned into professional wrestling and Josh Barnett had to remind her that with her arsenal of moves, she doesn't need to be unnecessarily flashy.
"So like anyone, I think, that starts wrestling, I was real frustrated, ‘cause I came up through the Billy Robinson / Josh Barnett tree. So it was very technical, catch wrestling, holds, and bashing people in, and I wanted to do the cool stuff, you know what I mean? I wanted to do moves off the top rope," she said to Sean Ross Sapp in an interview recorded before WrestleMania 39. "Josh always pounded it in me, ‘You don’t need to do that. Batman doesn’t fly. If Batman wanted to fly, he totally could. He has the money and the technology. Those girls do that stuff because they can’t do the things you do.’ I still didn’t really grasp this until I went to Japan. When I went there, and they were going crazy, I was like, ‘Oh, I am cool. I get it.’"
Speaking more about her connection to Billy Robinson, Baszler notes that she always pays homage to Billy before she gets in the ring as part of a reminder from Josh Barnett that as long as Billy would be proud of her body of work on any given night, then she's done well.
"When I get in the ring, you see me point to the sky before I go up the steps and it's always a reminder. Josh told me when I got signed, and I was moving here, he was like, 'At the end of the day,' if it was up to Billy and Josh, I would grab the girl and be like, 'Let's go right here. If you can beat me back here, you can beat me out there. Let's go.' I've always struggled with this balance. Josh was like, 'At the end of the day, if Billy would look at your work and nod his head, then you did good.' I always remember, 'Alright, Billy, I hope you like this.' That's so important to me, especially because on the women's side, there's not that representation at all. There are a lot of technical wrestlers that you can name, a whole long list, but you wouldn't have any women's names on the list. I'm very proud to be from that lineage. I have come to embrace what I am," she said.
Shayna is known as "The Submission Magician." While she is proud of her ability, Shayna also wants wrestling dance to understand that the submission holds she does in the ring have been around for many years and she is proud of her connection to shoot wrestling and loves its history.
"I obviously, because of my interest, subscribe to a lot of martial arts channels and stuff like that. You have guys that will breakdown MMA fights and the strategy. There is some of that on my channel when I find interesting enough. The thing that I can give that other people can't is, I can teach...I don't know if people understand that nearly everything that happens in pro wrestling has a fighting reason tied to it," she said. "There is stuff that [people are like], 'Ah, that's stupid, why did they do that?' Well, here's where it's from. If you know me from my MMA career, I was kind of known for, 'Shayna always does crazy submissions.' No I don't, it's an ab stretch, it's been known for hundreds of years. I did a hammerlock, 'Ah it's crazy, she just invented a submission.' I have a responsibility to meld the two worlds. It's from both sides. I think pro wrestlers today are losing the reason why they are doing stuff and also there are a lot of MMA fans and fighters that are like, 'Ah, it's that fake stuff.' It's all the same thing and comes from the same place. I think I can bridge that gap and I like to do that whenever I can."
At WrestleMania 39, Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey utilized their technical expertise to come away victorious in the WrestleMania Women's Showcase Tag Team Fatal 4-Way Match.
Fightful reported that Ronda Rousey specifically requested to be paired in a tag team with Shayna Baszler. Learn more here.
