Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey teaming would shake up the women’s division

Since signing with WWE in 2017, Ronda Rousey has definitely made quite the impact on the women’s roster within the company, and in women’s wrestling overall. Equal to her contributions have been those of Shayna Baszler. This of course makes absolute sense, seeing that the two were friends before their time in WWE and come from the same background—the UFC. Today we’ll be taking a look at just why pairing Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey together would be a good shake-up for the women’s division.

Although Ronda hasn’t had as many reps as Shayna has, she has certainly brought eyes to the division and a sort of legitimacy that perhaps wasn’t there before. I mean here was a real-life fighter, a former UFC Champion…and the first woman to do it by the way.

She parlayed all of that fame and notoriety and brought it right along with her to a division that already had great stars like Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and Sasha Banks, amongst others of course, but they were all elevated with the bringing in of such a fighting hero from the world of mixed martial arts.

Baszler for her part is a full-time wrestler and one who has paid her dues. She did the independent circuit in the professional wrestling world after her MMA career was over, and even made an appearance with reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) over at ROH…she went with them to the ring for their match at ROH’s 13th-anniversary show. This, along with many other stops on the indies, elevated her cult status in the industry.

She now enjoys quite the following in WWE and has established a reputation for herself in the division…essentially as a woman not to be messed with. Her feuds, matches, and promos are to the point and utterly severe—brutal even. Does anybody else remember when she bit Becky Lynch, drawing blood? Faked or not, that sent the right message, the aforementioned one: Do not mess with Shayna Baszler!

The unfortunate thing here and perhaps the overall point of this article is that both women are currently being misused if you ask me, and a missed opportunity has made itself known. Ronda is currently involved in a storyline with Liv Morgan. In fact, they have a match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules this weekend in Philadelphia. And really that doesn’t make any sense.

The fact that Morgan has the SmackDown Women’s Championship is a wee bit of a joke, sorry to say. Their match at SummerSlam this year was one-sided and really it not only didn’t make sense, it painted the champion into a weak competitor that merely got lucky. Is that what the champion is supposed to look like…and a ‘face’ of all things? Heels can look like that, but never a face.

This is just one thing that’s still wrong with the WWE product despite quite a few positive changes that have been made since Triple H has risen in power after Vince’s retirement. Still, a lot to work on quite obviously.

Baszler for her part keeps getting opportunities but sadly comes up short, management pushing other stars, and yeah I’m going to go there because women like Baszler deserve the chances these other women are getting, but perhaps they’re getting these chances based solely on their looks and not at all on their ability in the ring.

It happens to the men as well…a great body, they get the shot. This happened especially under Vince McMahon’s rule and I think we all know why. Sorry…just saying folks. Had to be said, and who better to say it than a journalist? Besides, we’re always getting bothered for stating the obvious that nobody wants to admit anyways.

Baszler is a better technical mat wrestler than most of the women on that roster, and yeah she’s gorgeous, just not in the obvious way that some of the others are, like say a Liv Morgan…and Baszler has no intention of putting that forward as her main attribute…she relies on her power and delivery in the ring, as she should.

Rousey also heaped praise onto her friend and co-worker a little while back on her YouTube channel, stating:

"“You’re totally right about Shayna [Baszler] being one of the best people on the show. I need them to get their sh*t together and realize it.”-via Post Wrestling (Transcription)"

Which brings me to the point of this piece…why the heck hasn’t WWE management decided to pair these women up? The tag team division needs a boost.

Especially if they have Ronda lose to Morgan at Extreme Rules, which I think is going to happen. Call it a hunch, but hopefully, I’m wrong. But if Rousey does lose, then the next best step for her is a run with Baszler as a tag team. They should feud with the current champs, and eventually have a run with the titles.

Their largest feud should eventually lead to the returning Sasha Banks and Naomi (hopefully that return actually comes to fruition), and then the beautiful part comes folks…the moment in time when Baszler and Rousey split up after losing the titles, Baszler turning on Rousey, establishing just who will be the face and who will be the heel.

This can be a WrestleMania caliber match and one for the ages…when these two like-minded individuals come face to face after spreading destruction onto the division.

It didn’t happen for too long but if we look back at the Attitude Era, Triple H and Steve Austin were a tag team for a spell. They went under the name Two Man Power Trip, and it was beautiful while it lasted. They were oh so dominant and so cruel. I can imagine a Shayna and Rousey run going a little like that.

Hopefully, it happens. We can keep our fingers crossed in the meantime.