The burial of Shayna Baszler since her call up from NXT to Raw has been totally unprecedented. Her disappearance from TV happened so fast that fans were left wondering if Vince remembers she even still works there. Bianca Belair, who has also been absent from Raw for weeks, at least still gets to wrestle on Main Event. But Baszler's fall from grace might hold an unexpected pitfall for WWE -- one that could impact its dealings with future crossover talent.
The former MMA star switched to pro wrestling in 2015, working for a variety of indie promotions in the US as well as World Wonder Ring Stardom in Japan. In Ring of Honor, she actually teamed with reDRagon, aka Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly. Baszler also spent a lot of time in Shimmer, working with Mia Yim, Ruby Riott, Mercedes Martinez and Kay Lee Ray, before popping up in WWE.
For a lot of wrestling fans, their initial experience with Shayna Baszler came during her incredible performance in the first Mae Young Classic. She went all the way to the finals, ultimately losing to Kairi Sane. Signing with NXT shortly after that in 2017, Baszler soon became one of NXT's top heels. She won the NXT Women's Champion by defeating Ember Moon in April 2018.
Oddly enough, that title reign would end 133 days later at the hands of Kairi Sane, the wrestler who always seemed to have Baszler's number. She redeemed herself at Evolution, regaining the title and becoming the first two-time NXT Women's Championship. She would go on to dominate the NXT Women's Division, losing the belt 446 days later to the (then) red hot Rhea Ripley. After an excellent showing in the 2020 Royal Rumble, Baszler was called up to Raw and targeted Becky Lynch's title.
This is where things went off the rails. Leading up to WrestleMania 36, WWE was still booking Baszler as a monster heel. Honestly, the company probably overdid it a bit, particularly when she debuted by biting Becky Lynch on the back of her neck in an angle that was soon swept under the rug. Fans expected a huge victory for Baszler at WrestleMania. Instead, she was handed a loss and Becky retained, only to relinquish the belt to Asuka a few weeks later when The Man found out she was pregnant. It's even been reported that even Lynch thought the right move was to drop the belt to Baszler at WrestleMania 36, something that obviously did not happen.
After this loss, Baszler's push started to slip away in full. She lost the Money in the Bank match and had a couple of matches after that, before disappearing entirely. At this point, it's been weeks since fans have seen her, which is a true waste of her talent and skills.
Much of her main roster push came from Paul Heyman, who was was in charge of creative on Raw at that time -- well, as much as anyone else can be in charge when you work for Vince McMahon. McMahon is reportedly not a fan of Baszler's, with rumors suggesting that Vince doesn't "get" Shayna, her gimmick as an MMA fighter, or how her "look" fits into WWE's women's division. Now that Heyman is out and Bruce Prichard is in, Baszler returning to the main event scene is less likely than ever.
The real problem about Vince not "getting" her MMA gimmick isn't limited to Shayna Baszler, either. After Baszler's departure from NXT, her fellow MMA fighters Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir have largely been absent from TV. Their main gimmick was being Baszler's sidekicks and thugs, a storyline that worked well in building their characters. But now, the only time fans see them on screen these days is as part of the crowd shots on various WWE shows. If a two-time NXT Women's Champion is being buried, Duke and Shafir can't be feeling too optimistic about their outlooks.
This move could easily do long term damage to WWE's future attempts to book other female MMA stars. Any potential crossover star looking at where Baszler, Duke and Shafir are at right now in WWE should absolutely rethink any decision to sign with the company. Cris Cyborg has long talked about trying pro wrestling, mentioning both WWE and AEW in the conversation. Considering how WWE is treating most of its female MMA stars these days, she would be well advised to make AEW her first option.
All of this has comes as a bit of a surprise for fans who watched WWE roll out the red carpet right over Asuka's toes for Ronda Rousey at the Royal Rumble. WWE pushed Rousey so hard because she was already a massive name outside of MMA before signing a WWE contract. She brought eyes with her just by being there, regardless of whether she even wrestled or not.
But WWE also has designs on Rousey returning to the ring someday, and seems to have forgotten that Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are her close friends. It will be interesting to see if WWE burying them impacts how she deals with the WWE. Frankly, no one would be overly shocked if WWE used her friends' wrestling careers as bargaining chips in negotiations with Rousey.
While WrestleMania 36 may have been too soon after Baszler's call up to make her the Raw Women's Champion, burying a respectable heel since then wasn't the right call, either. If Vince actually tuned in to NXT once in a while, he might "get" how effective Shayna's MMA-based heel character could be.
Short term thinking like this doesn't just damage the brand in the eyes of fans, but also in the eyes of prospective talent. It's going to be hard to convince other potential MMA crossover stars to sign contracts that will just lead to a seat in catering.