Shayna Baszler has confirmed a long-standing rumor regarding her first WrestleMania appearance, revealing that she was originally scheduled to defeat Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship in 2020. Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Baszler detailed how the global pandemic drastically altered the trajectory of her main roster run.
Baszler arrived on Raw in early 2020 following a dominant run in NXT, immediately targeting Lynch. While she lost their match at WrestleMania 36, Baszler says the original plan was for her to take the gold.
“I was originally told, and who knows in this business, but I was originally told like ‘Yeah, you’re going to go into a feud with Becky and eventually win the title off her,” Baszler said.
However, the onset of COVID-19 forced WWE to move the event to the empty Performance Center. The lack of a live audience caused WWE officials to rethink the timing of such a significant title change.
“COVID happens, and then we all get told, ‘Well, there’s going to be no audience, so we want a title change like that to happen in front of a live crowd, and remember at that time we didn’t know this was going to be like a year,” Baszler explained.
Instead of losing the title, Lynch retained at WrestleMania. Just over a month later, Lynch relinquished the championship to Asuka after announcing her pregnancy, taking a hiatus from the company. Baszler would eventually capture tag team gold, but never held a singles title on the main roster before her release earlier this year.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.Â
