Shayna Baszler: “The Fact That I Was So Happy And Having So Much Fun Doing What I Was Doing, Turned Ronda On To Wrestling”

Shayna shares her thoughts.

On WrestleMania weekend this past April which was where UFC Hall Of Famer Ronda Rousey made her WWE in-ring debut, the night before Ronda’s first pro wrestling match her close friend and fellow-former MMA fighter Shayna Baszler captured the NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver: New Orleans. Prior to Shayna emerging onto the WWE scene, she worked for a number of promotions on the independent wrestling scene such as ‘Absolute Intense Wrestling’, SHIMMER and STARDOM. Over the years that Shayna was gaining experience in the squared circle, she, Ronda, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir all roomed together and Shayna believes that by Ronda consistently seeing how happy she was and seeing how much fun that she was having in the pro wrestling world that it drew Ronda closer to making the decision to become a professional wrestler.

Shayna Baszler gave her insight on why Ronda decided to venture into the land of sports-entertainment when she joined Sam Roberts’ ‘Not Sam Wrestling’ podcast while the WWE Performance Center played host to the WWE 2K19 festivities.

“I think actually, truthfully, the fact that I was so happy and having so much fun doing what I was doing, turned Ronda on to pro wrestling more than fans and things like that.” Shayna stated. “She… you know she was in a spot where [she was] maybe was a little jaded in MMA and I had that too – just she was on a much bigger scale obviously than me and so I think her seeing we had similar paths and then seeing that it’s like… kind of nerdy but seeing my final form actually happen and then I think that’s what did it and she’s always said – she’s the one that said if I hadn’t ended up losing on the Ultimate Fighter where I was expected to win that whole show. If I didn’t end up losing, I wouldn’t have gone to stay at her house and just had wrestling on every night and that’s kind of how she got back into it. So, its just cool.” She concluded.

Ronda Rousey has made the smooth transition and is now the reigning RAW Women’s Champion. Ronda is currently in the midst of a feud with the Riott Squad and on Ronda’s side for the feud is Nikki and Brie Bella. The two sets of trios have took the fight to one another over the past few weeks on RAW and it will all come to a head on October 6th when they meet in a six-woman tag match at WWE Super Show-Down.

If you are going to use the quote above, please credit the ‘Not Sam Wrestling’ podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.