411’s WWE Chronicle Report: Shanya Baszler on WrestleMania, Ronda Rousey Saving Her Life, and More!

-Air date: 05/09/20
-Run Time: 37:19

-We are back without another new episode in the Chronicle series. This time focusing on Shayna Baszler and her rise on RAW. A quick reminder that tomorrow brings the much hyped Undertaker series and I’ll be getting a recap of that up as soon as possible. Let’s get to it!

-May 5, 2020: Orlando, FL: Shayna talks about doing a card trick for Josh Barnett and it featured the Queen of Spades. That is where the nickname started and she was introduced as that in her next fight. She shows off a magic trick and talks about how people who do tricks, or are into metal are seen as nerdy. She decided to own what makes her nerdy and it has made her a bad ass.

-The following takes place from Jan 26, 2020 to May 5, 2020. This is WWE Chronicle!

-Fast and the Furious breaks out as Shayna drives and talks about her 1969 Ford Mustang. She mentions that cars like this are never done. Nothing can match the feeling of old muscle cars, and it’s an attention getter on the streets. Her in ring style is old school, classic bruiser like the car.

-She tells us that her dad and uncle were wrestling coaches. She grew up on a mat, but she wasn’t into as much as she wished she had been knowing now what she does for a living. She got into MMA and Dana White did a first season of an all female ‘Ultimate Fighter.’ She made it on the show and was the top seed in the house, but lost in the first round. She had lost before, but this loss was visible to millions. Her last fight was with Amanda Nunes, who she calls the best active fighter in the world. Note how she said “active.” She tore something in her leg in the loss and remembers thinking she was never going to be in front of a crowd like that again.

-Shayna is in Houston checking out the stadium before the 2020 Royal Rumble. She was at the show the previous year, but it is obviously different this time. She calls it wild as she looks around at the empty stadium. She is totally happy with each step on the journey and then something else great happens. For her it is nice to know if you put in hard work good things happen. Rumble time as Shayna enters at 30 and eliminates 7 people before settling for runner-up status as Charlotte gets the win.

-Shayna talks about her MMA loss and that it was a depressing time for her. She says that Ronda Rousey saved her. She flew out to work with Rousey for 2 weeks and ended up never going back.

-RAW: Shayna shows up after Becky defeats Asuka and attacks her. The attack includes the famous bite on the back of the neck which had some people freaking out that they were giving her a vampire gimmick. Nope, just a way to make it memorable. Shayna says she gets enjoyment out of shocking people.

-Feb 17, 2020: Shayna cuts a promo about winning The Elimination Chamber and challenging Becky Lynch. She loves the idea of the EC because she has put in tons of hours hurting people inside a cage. She brings legitimacy when she steps inside the ring.

-Now we discuss the MMA 4 Horsewomen and Shayna brings up that she was the wrestling fan. They all lived in the same house and Shayna made her MMA training was based around when RAW would start. Because she was watching everyone else watched and saw how much she was enjoying it. She talks about training to be a wrestler before NXT was even a thing and Ronda saw the enjoyment Shayna had. Ronda didn’t have that anymore with MMA so it intrigued her to try pro-wrestling. She laughs as she says she won’t take credit, but she is the reason Ronda took up wrestling.

-RAW: Shayna makes her in ring RAW debut against Sane and wins via tap-out.

-Shayna shows off her home and her VR room. She talks more about being a nerd and some of the stuff she has collected. She tells us that she fights because she is good at it, which is the easy answer. The more thoughtful answer is that she likes the puzzle of the human body and solving the ways you can attack and defend someone.

-Elimination Chamber: The Producer brings up that the Chamber is a different type of cage. She admits it is different, but it is still a cage and she feels at home. Her plan is to get to WrestleMania and this is just a step to that goal. She has learned not to put a time line on things because things happen when they are supposed to.

-She talks about the rush she gets from having absolute control over someone. She gets her turn in the Chambers and eliminates 2 people in less than a minute and then runs through everyone else until it’s just her and Asuka. Shayna puts her out as well to cap off the most dominant performance inside the Chamber.

-Shayna talks about how everyone that steps inside a ring dreams to getting to Mania. Even if it is just a passing thought it has crossed everyone’s mind. Her wrestling is the most visible thing she has done. MMA wasn’t as visible when she started so she doesn’t compare her accomplishments in each. She is human and puts some stock into what the fans think, but she let that happen way more when she was in MMA.

-Graphic: “On March 11, 2020 the coronavirus COVID-19 was classified as a pandemic. As a results, large gatherings around the world were impacted, including WrestleMania 36 which was originally scheduled to be held in Tampa, Florida in front of over 80,000 fans. On March 16, 2020 it was announced the show would be moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida with no fans present.”

-March 16, 2020: Performance Center. Shayna is told by a producer about the change of venue. Shayna says it sucks because it’s WrestleMania and you expect all the pyro and the pirate theme this year. She geeks out over how they have converted the PC into a place to hold TV shows. She is interested to see the energy without a crowd when they are used to feeding off them.

-RAW: Shayna gets attacked by Becky during an in ring interview.

-Shayna discusses how important this WrestleMania is because of the climate. All she has been doing is talking to her family about the virus and the world shutting down. This WrestleMania will give people a mental reprieve. Like a lot of the NXT call ups she talks about how this is a full circle moment as she started in the PC.

-WrestleMania: April 4, 2020: She talks about how everyone could still feel the importance of it being WrestleMania. There is a pressure of Fight Day and it is a lot more than sparring or practice. How an athlete deals with that pressure is what separates the good from the great. They show video of Shayna warming up before the match as she talks about this being the real deal now.

-WrestleMania: RAW Women’s Title: Lynch/Baszler: They have a hard hitting match that Becky wins in a surprise to most people. I have heard some complain about her losing and others mention it will be better for her to win when fans are back in the arena. Shayna is asked her thoughts about her first Mania and obviously it wasn’t the Mania everyone envisioned, but it was still a WrestleMania. She wants to see how the fall-out goes.

-She talks about her coaches telling her that more upsets happen in MMA. She could spend 14:55 of a 15:00 fight crushing someone and get caught in the last 5 seconds and lose. That carries over to wrestling as well with the added touch of a pin fall. She can beat someone pillar to post and she can get caught and that’s all it took at Mania.

-She tells the producer that she is tired of people telling her that wrestling isn’t fighting and that she should be better than this. She is tired of everyone pretending they are equal and that is the Shayna people are going to see now. She tells us she has a side of her that enjoys hurting people as they show her breaking arms and abusing women with ladders.

-This Sunday is Money in the Bank at Titan Towers. The winner is the first to scale all 10 stories, get to the roof, climb a ladder and get the briefcase. Shayna doesn’t think there are any advantages or disadvantages as nobody knows what to expect. She informs us that she has been to WWE HQ and some of the girls haven’t, but that doesn’t mean much. The match is important to her as it a redemption story. A win puts her right back where she belongs and then things are on her terms. She plays around with her dog and asks the dog to bark is she is going to win Sunday: the dog barks and I’ll count that as a spoiler.

-We get some final hype for MITB as Shayna promises to destroy everyone and climb the ladder to success.

-I enjoy this series and this episode was no exception. I won’t say it was my favorite episode in the series, but it was solid. The Dean Ambrose one is still my personal favorite, and Drew’s earlier in the year was also fantastic. This one didn’t have a lot to cover and didn’t offer too much in terms of things we didn’t know. Her discussing her days in MMA and why she enjoys fighting made for the best moments of this episode. The pro-wrestling stuff was just kind of there. It was still a solid watch and it was cool seeing a human side to Shayna as we only see cage fighting ass kicker on TV, but I wouldn’t call anything must see like previous episodes. Thanks as always for reading!