Shayna Baszler has opened up about her MMA Rules match against Ronda Rousey at SummerSlam in 2023, a bout that received a mixed reaction from fans at the time. Baszler explained that she felt creatively “handcuffed” by a number of circumstances, including the stadium venue and, most significantly, a rushed timeline due to Ronda Rousey’s impending departure from WWE. The match, which took place at Ford Field in Detroit, was billed as a fight between the two former MMA stars and real-life best friends.
Venue and Time Constraints
Speaking with Ariel Helwani on his show, Baszler detailed the significant logistical challenges they faced. She revealed that the stadium setting made it impossible to use a structure like a cage or Fight Pit, as there was no time to set it up and tear it down between matches. She also noted the lack of a central jumbotron made it hard for fans in the upper decks to see the action.
“We were very aware that in a stadium environment, that sort of match to a pro wrestling crowd is going to be hard to see. And we were kind of counting on this jumbotron, but the stadium didn’t have a jumbotron. So, we knew, like, it’d be hard for people to see, and on top of that, because we were in a stadium, a lot of people were talking about, like, why wasn’t it a cage mat? Like they didn’t have the structure in a stadium, rather than a like, a bigger arena, to lower a cage or a fight pit and I think it would have been different. Okay, I’m not saying this in a way that’s like, this isn’t like a jab or anything, but if we had been like the men’s title picture, I think. And it was the last match of the night, and they could have built, they could have, like, brought that stuff out and built the cage around it, or something along those lines. We could have done something like that. But because we were, we were not the last match, there was no way to quickly, like, cart the pieces of structure out, build it and then also take it back down and cart it back out for the next match to take place.”
A Rushed Storyline
The most significant limitation, according to Baszler, was the timeline. She explained that Ronda Rousey had a “hard out date” for her WWE departure, which forced them to rush the storyline. Baszler believes the match would have been much more effective as the culmination of a longer, more developed feud.
“So we had to, we tried, you know, we tried to get creative. And it’s just, it was just tough. The venue made it tough. I do think, like, Rhonda having a sort of hard out date kind of handcuffed us in that we had to rush, like, we had to, like, do the story. Now, I think it would have been better served to have that sort of match as, like a blow off after a longer feud, right? But, yeah, I did. The handcuffs were not, like, you’re not allowed to do this. It was more just the circumstances of the events, the time, and the venue that we were at.”
Baszler was released by WWE this year, while Ronda Rousey left the company after the SummerSlam match. You can hear the full, detailed conversation with Shayna Baszler on the latest episode of The Ariel Helwani Show.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
