WrestleMania 36: Shayna Baszler losing will prove to be the right call

Many WWE fans expected Shayna Baszler to defeat Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36, so her loss came as a shock.

Becky Lynch went into WrestleMania 36 as the Raw Women’s Champion after winning the title in the main event of WrestleMania 35 when she became “Becky 2 Belts”. Since she had held the championship for a year and had beaten seemingly everyone available on Raw, many predicted Lynch would finally meet her match against Shayna Baszler.

After all, Baszler was one of the most dominant champions in NXT history, and she’s still the only wrestler to win the NXT Women’s Championship twice. Furthermore, Baszler eliminated all five other women inside the Elimination Chamber in March, becoming the first person to ever accomplish this feat.

Yet when push came to shove, Baszler couldn’t get the job done. For the second straight time, Baszler came up short in a big title match. She couldn’t beat Rhea Ripley in December in an excellent NXT Women’s Title match on NXT TV, and she couldn’t beat Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36.

Baszler’s loss must be devastating to her from a character standpoint. We’ve never seen a vulnerable Baszler and, honestly, we may never see her open up to us as a character. But even if she doesn’t show how much this loss affects her, there is no doubt that there will be fallout from this.

The whole match, Baszler was going for the Kirifuda Clutch, even trying to put Lynch in it within seconds of the match beginning. The Kirifuda Clutch has always been Baszler’s go-to move, as she’s won title match after title match by choking out her opponents.

However, she may have used it too often both in the match and in the build to her Raw Women’s Title bout with Lynch. The WrestleMania 35 hero took a hint from former Baszler rival Kairi Sane, using the Kirifuda Clutch against Baszler to pull off a crafty win.

Fans will ask questions about who Becky faces as a championship rival after yet another victory, which extends her reign past one full year. But there will also be questions asked about what happens to Baszler, who lost this title match after being booked so dominantly in the Elimination Chamber. Baszler was also booked dominantly in the Royal Rumble match before Charlotte Flair eliminated her in the end, and many fans assumed she was called up to win the title off Lynch at WrestleMania.

Baszler could try to beat Becky in a second match, and maybe Becky vs. Shayna II could be better than the first bout. They could do their best to have a special, long-term rivalry, and long-term story-telling is a strength of Becky’s.

But maybe Shayna will go and feud with Asuka, who lost the Women’s Tag Titles to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross at WrestleMania 36.

Or WWE could try to build Baszler back up by having her win some feuds against wrestlers in the Raw Women’s Division who are lower on the card and not former champions like Becky and Asuka.

While it may have been disappointing for some to see Shayna lose, others believe she still isn’t ready to beat someone like Lynch and become the champion on Monday nights. There’s no shame in losing to Becky, who is WWE’s most dominant star right now. Baszler can rebuild her value and work her way back to the title picture by putting on big performances and upping her value in other rivalries.