Shayna Baszler – ‘I Don’t Want To Be Ronda Rousey’s Sidekick’
Shayna Baszler will go 1-on-1 with Ronda Rousey this weekend at the 2023 WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view event.
Speaking with News 18, Baszler explained why she betrayed Rousey at this year’s Money in the Bank.
According to Baszler, her time as Rousey’s sidekick has run its course and she intends to fight for the primary role going forward.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the history between herself and Rousey dating back to their MMA days: “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. 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. 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.’”
On the decision point that determined her present plans: “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.”
On preparing for their future SummerSlam match: “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. 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. 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.”
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