WWE NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler recently spoke with Newsweek and said she wants to bring back a “grimy, no-nonsense realism” to the NXT women’s division.
“I just want to bring back that grimy, no-nonsense realism that the women’s division has been lacking,” Baszler said when asked what’s next for her in NXT. “And as long as I can stay true to that, the rest will take care of itself. I’m from the midwest, so I believe as long as you put your nose in the dirt it all comes out in the wash. It might take you a couple years longer than someone else, but I’m fine with that, and I think I’m finally seeing the fruits of that.”
Baszler also talked about the transition to live TV on the USA Network, and recalled how she wasn’t allowed to wear a “I Heart 69 Mustangs” t-shirt.
“It’s been an interesting thing to have to worry about different TV aspects like watching your mouth or something like a t-shirt you wear,” Baszler said. “I don’t know if this is a story I should tell, but I have a 1969 Mustang, and it’s my prize possession. I have a shirt that says ‘I heart 69 mustangs,’ so I was going to wear it and I put it on social media but just the camera shot showed ‘I heart 69’ and they were like, ‘No we are on tv now, so you can’t.’ It’s stuff I didn’t think of because I’m just all about my car. The point of [the performance center] is to groom us for TV, so when it was time to pull the trigger, we found that we were more ready than we thought. It was scary until we got in there, and then it was ‘OK, we got this.’”
The Queen of Spades was also asked if she’s thought about her legacy and the women who came through NXT, and what it means for NXT going live on TV.
“The girls that came through here from the beginning have all set the tone for how great this division has been,” Baszler said. “And if people are ever interested in watching that they can, and they’ll see that it’s been this great. The thing I keep saying is we aren’t holding back. It’s not like all of a sudden the reins are off. We’ve been doing this. Now everyone gets to see it on a bigger stage. It’s not a case of ‘when we get on TV now we’re really going to have good matches.’ It’s not any different from us. The groundwork was laid out for us, and we are just continuing what we came into.”
