Shayna Baszler On Her Relationship With Nia Jax, Drawing Inspiration From Team Hell No

Shayna Baszler is currently riding with Nia Jax as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, and she discussed their dynamic on the latest After the Bell with Corey Graves. Baszler noted that she was friendly but not friends with Jax before they got paired up and that’s made it interesting for her as she learns the intricacies of tag team wrestling. She also talked about how she’s looked at Kane and Daniel Bryan’s tagging as Team Hell No as inspiration, not just for character stuff but in terms of their in-ring dynamic. You can check out highlights and the full audio below:

On her relationship with Nia Jax: “We were friendly I guess [before they started tagging]? She was like another person in the locker room, but our paths never really crossed. I hadn’t been up there very long, and then during the time I was, it was straight into this thing with Becky and then figuring out where to go from there. So I don’t want to say we were friends, but we weren’t — like, I didn’t have a problem with her. And now obviously we are a tag team … It’s been interesting because that’s kind of being thrust again into the deep end. Where, not only did I not know tag team wrestling, but learning that sort of thing, it would be easier with like, a best friend I would imagine. Because you know how each other works, and you know what each other’s thinking, and all this. And we don’t have any of that. So it’s been a fun challenge to kind of learn. And I’m still getting there. We have the titles but I still feel like we haven’t come to full fruition of what we are yet.”

On if they’re taking inspiration from any other teams: “So obviously, not just for the — I think there’s some social dynamic that compares us to Kane and Daniel Bryan. But I think more the style, the in-ring style. You know, I don’t spend enough time looking at backstage and character type stuff. But like in-ring stuff is stuff that I’ll sit for hours and I never get tired of. So just watching a dynamic like that where it’s a big guy, and like Daniel Bryan and I have a lot of similarities in the ring. And we have a lot of the common [background]. He trained a little bit with Billy [Robinson], as well. So I know he’s done a little bit of training. Our paths never crossed there, but I know from seeing some of the stuff he does and talking with him. So I think looking at teams like that where the dynamic is similar to what we have has been really beneficial to me.

“It’s difficult because our dynamic isn’t going to be a tag team like — you know, like you think about these legendary pairings that were always only a tag team. We’re like, we’re not doing this tandem kind of offense, and doing these cool double-team moves. That’s not what we are. So there’s a lot of stuff I watch that is like, ‘Okay, I can put that over here for later.’ But like I said, it’s been an interesting learning experience.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s After the Bell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.