Shayna Baszler Explains Her Reasons For Wearing The Black Belt To The Ring

In a recent appearance on The Bump, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Shayna Baszler shared some details about why she and Ronda Rousey wear their black belts to the ring (via Fightful). Baszler explained the significance of the gesture in relation to her past training and how her achievements in WWE function as a benchmark for her whole career. You can find a highlight from Baszler and watch the full episode below.

On why the duo chose to incorporate their black belts into their gear: “Yeah, and it’s cool because both of us are honoring where we started all this, wearing our black belts to the ring. It’s not just a reminder to everyone else about our pedigree, it’s a reminder to ourselves of where we come from. So it’s funny because, I’m sure Ronda learning to throw people at four or me getting on a wrestling mat when I was six or signing up for my first jujitsu class, it’s not something that was like, ‘Alright, I can’t wait.’ It’s funny, I’ve talked about my catch wrestling, and I studied catch wrestling alongside Brazilian jujitsu, and catch wrestling is more like amateur wrestling in that there’s not a belt system per se. But in the old way of catch wrestling, you didn’t get to do professional wrestling until you prove yourself on the mat as an amateur. So I’ve always said that pro wrestling in the WWE is my black belt in catch wrestling if there was one. So, I don’t know, it’s just a cool way to show that all this was put into motion long, long ago.”