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Shayna Baszler On How Nia Jax Helped Her Find Her Footing In WWE

December 30, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Nia Jax SHayna Baszler Raw Image Credit: WWE

Shayna Baszler spent over a year teaming with Nia Jax, and she discussed how that team helped her become more comfortable as a performer. Jax spoke with Metro for a new interview, and you can see the highlights below:

On what she learned once she hit the main roster: “My style in the ring – people believe, “I dunno man, she went off the page and did something there”. Vince really likes that. There’s times where he’s like, ‘That looked like you were just fighting.’ I’m like, “Yeah…” For a while, it was hard for me to find the balance between, “Am I a fighter right now, or am I pro wrestler?” Even in the ring. I think I’ve really found the melding between the two, it’s been good.”

On finding the balance between the art of wrestling and her MMA style: ‘I think it’s just knowing that it needs to be a performance. If you watch UFC – I can’t just go in, take someone down and lay on them [in WWE]. Is there a time for me to do that in a match sometimes? Yeah! If someone’s down, hit them! But that can’t be the totality of it. And I think trying to know when to do that and when to rip someone off or something, knowing the whens of doing the two different sides is something I had to learn. And not just for me, but for what [Vince] wants – it’s his show! So knowing what the writers and he wants and when, and navigating that.”

On Nia Jax helping her adjust to the new environment: “As experienced as I am in one-on-one combat, she was far more experienced in being on Raw and SmackDown. So she would really help me, “You might wanna try this instead”. She helped me find my footing for sure. When I came up, I didn’t know anybody so for a while she was the only one I was hanging out with just ’cause we were kind of forced to have this sort of relationship together.”

On the tag team helping her develop her character: “I think that’s one of the best things that my tag team did, was show a completely different side to me. I was still trying to be comfortable and find my footing and get in the groove. Getting in this tag team and showing this side of me really helped me be comfortable. Now, if you look at my singles run when I first got called up, as compared to my singles run now, I think you can see there’s definitely a difference in comfort level and just how I carry myself in the ring.”

On fan criticism of her tag run: “Even if you [the fan] don’t like the particular story, even if you hate that I was doing this stuff in a tag team and almost a comedy sort of thing sometimes, you still see me as dangerous and it helped me to get to where I am now – which is pretty scary and dangerous. It’s all a path to something.”

article topics :

Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Jeremy Thomas