Shayna Baszler will battle Ronda Rousey in an MMA Rules Match at WWE SummerSlam 2023, and spoke with The New York Post about the upcoming clash.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On proposing a fight with Rousey back in the UFC: “It was my turn, I said, at the time, ‘The best way I can thank you for changing everything for me is to give you the fight you deserve. At the time, we think I’m gonna clean out the UFC division and we’re gonna meet for the title and it’s gonna be epic and it’s gonna be the first fight Ronda has that lasts over a minute… Now I have to give her the fight she deserves and it has a totally different meaning than we originally thought, but I think it’s a full-circle moment.”
On stepping out from under Rousey’s shadow: “I think you could see the pattern since we have been alongside each other in WWE, I was forever gonna be the sidekick, again. I gave her that in MMA, but I think when it comes to wrestling it’s my thing now. I don’t think there was anyone who was gonna beat me and Ronda [for years] when we were on the same time as a tag team. I just came to this slow realization that I’m the sidekick. This is the thing I’ve always dreamed of and worked for and I’m the sidekick?”
On their match at SummerSlam: “Once all eyes are on me, then it’s a matter of solidifying my spot as that person that if I can beat up Ronda Rousey then who can’t I beat up. You look at Ronda, even the losses she has had [in WWE] they have been a little bit of people capitalized on a mistake or a fluke type of thing. I want to beat Ronda Rousey definitively in a fight so there is no question when my music hits (that) someone is getting hurt, win or lose.”
On potentially making Rousey tap out: “You will have to tear both of Ronda’s arms off and beat them unconscious with them in order for her to really say you won a fight. I have to be willing to do what it takes to make Ronda physically incapable of continuing to fight and the same with [Ronda for] me. I’m not even sure [tapping] is something she’s capable of doing. We’ll find out. We’ll push the limits.”
On toeing the heel/babyface line: “I think if I take care of Ronda and shut her up and maybe she does go away I think for a second people are gonna appreciate me a little bit. I don’t think I’m the type of person who’s ever gonna be a babyface face in the way a Liv Morgan is or a Kairi Sane, these super sympathetic [figures]. But I think I can be people’s hero if they want it to be. Am I trying to do that, not necessarily.”
