Vince McMahon didn’t want any “pro wrestling” from Shayna Baszler at first

For about a year, fans have waited to see Shayna Baszler’s booking match the dominant run that made her the top heel in NXT.

In fairness, WWE has somewhat protected her throughout her time on Raw, and any push would pale in comparison to her two reigns as NXT Women’s Champion that spanned a combined 548 recognized days, but for many, “one-half of a championship tag team” isn’t what many envisioned for her main roster run.

Despite that, Baszler has a sunnier opinion of WWE’s CEO/de-facto head booker Vince McMahon than most, even if his vision for her main roster usage seems counterintuitive.

Shayna Baszler says that Vince McMahon didn’t want her to do “pro wrestling”  when she arrived on the main roster.

Baszler spoke with Renee Paquette on Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Baszler shared an early interaction she had with McMahon shortly after getting called up (h/t to Fightful’s Robert DeFelice for the transcription):

"“When I started wrestling on Raw he gave me a talk that was like, ‘Look you have something different to offer, you have a unique look. The thing you have to start learning now that you’re on Raw is that your work rate is shown on pay-per-view and at NXT so don’t get so hell-bent on weekly raw TV because that’s where we build the story for the work rate that you can do on a pay-per-view.’ So he’s like, ‘You have this thing. I don’t want you to do any pro wrestling, got it?’”"

Baszler debuted on the main roster during the February 10, 2020 episode of Raw, where she attacked and bit the neck of then-Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, setting up a match between the two at WrestleMania 36.

However, despite Lynch reportedly lobbying to put her over, Baszler lost to Lynch at Mania after Lynch countered the Kirifuda Clutch into a surprise rollup pin. As of now, Baszler is enjoying her second reign as the co-holder of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships with Nia Jax, with their next title defense scheduled for the March 3 episode of NXT against women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez.

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