Ever since former NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler has made her mark on Raw, she has created a path of destruction in her wake. With her successful tenure in NXT, of course it’s only right for Baszler to change direction with her move to WWE’s A show.
Fans knew of Baszler’s hard work and stellar performances in NXT. Baszler may have been dominant, but she earned her biggest wins during her time in NXT. Wins against Kairi Sane and Bianca Belair come to mind in that aspect. Even if she did lose, Baszler didn’t lose going down. She came out better, more fearsome, and more dangerous with her character.
Baszler also made a statement prior to her debut on Raw at Survivor Series, where she defeated Raw and Smackdown Women’s Champions Becky Lynch and Bayley. That is an accomplishment enough to add on her growing WWE resume with the performance. But for someone such as Baszler, it doesn’t end there, nor should it end.
At the Royal Rumble, Baszler was a heavy favorite to win the ticket to the Women’s Championship of her choosing. However, Charlotte Flair outsmarted Baszler to win this year’s Rumble.
So that left the idea that the approach the company would do with Baszler had to be different and it had to work. While Ronda Rousey dominated the Raw Women’s Division, Baszler is way ahead of her MMA comrade.
Her vicious attack on Lynch was just the start of what is to come beyond Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania. Baszler knows what she’s capable of, and she does it with confidence and a growing ego. She isn’t afraid to go the extreme route, and the scary part is that she hasn’t even started going into her bag of tricks.
Perhaps looking at the direction for Baszler now, winning at the Rumble would have been the easy way. So with a more savage direction, fans are seeing a whole new side to Baszler. Her build to establish a new kind of fear into the Raw Women’s Division is certainly working.
While the Elimination Chamber match left little to be desired in terms of predictability, Baszler’s performance was remarkable. Her match with Kairi Sane on the Raw before the PPV reminded fans just how good the two are in the ring together. The Elimination Chamber didn’t do anything for the others involved, but to establish there’s a new sheriff in Raw town.
One key moment that will stand out in the Elimination Chamber match is Baszler’s taunting of Asuka (who was still in her chamber pod) as she had Liv Morgan slipping away in the devastating Kurifuda Clutch. While Asuka is dealing with an injury, the promise of seeing the two women wrestle, in addition to the confrontation with Flair at the Rumble, is grand.
So while there may be little inconsistencies, Baszler’s impending tenure on the Raw brand isn’t so bad after all. What happens after Baszler’s match with Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch at WrestleMania has yet to be known.
There is the tease of her and Charlotte Flair and Asuka to think about when it comes to SummerSlam, or even Survivor Series. If anything else, the Raw Women’s Division needs Shayna Baszler more than we knew.
