Shayna Baszler has confirmed a long-rumored creative plan surrounding her first WrestleMania appearance, revealing that she was originally slated to defeat Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship in 2020.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Baszler explained how the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the direction of her early main roster run.
After arriving on Monday Night Raw in early 2020 following a dominant stint in NXT, Baszler was immediately positioned as a top challenger to Lynch. While she ultimately lost their bout at WrestleMania 36, Baszler says that was not the original plan.
“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.
Those plans shifted abruptly once the global pandemic forced WWE to move WrestleMania 36 to the empty WWE Performance Center. According to Baszler, the absence of a live crowd led company officials to reconsider making a major title change at that moment.
“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.
As a result, Lynch retained the championship at WrestleMania. Just over a month later, Lynch vacated the title and announced her pregnancy, passing the championship to Asuka before stepping away from WWE.
Baszler would later find success as a tag team champion but never captured a singles title on the main roster. She was released by WWE earlier this year, closing the book on a run that — as she now confirms — was once set to look very different.
