Shayna Baszler has signed with TNA Wrestling, and the new Knockouts World Tag Team Champion says the titles are going on the road. TNA credited Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture with first reporting the news.
Baszler confirmed the signing to Salcedo on Thursday. Asked whether she is staying now that she holds gold, she said that is what being a champion means. She added that she and Zoey Serrano were confident enough in the result that she signed with TNA already expecting to win the belts and knowing she would have to stick around to defend them.
Baszler and Serrano beat Allie and Kiera Hogan for the Knockouts World Tag Team Championship at Bound For Glory on October 11, in her title-winning TNA debut. Baszler choked out Allie to end the match. She and Serrano last teamed in WWE as part of Pure Fusion Collective with Daria Rae, now a TNA authority figure, and reunited for the title shot after Serrano asked for her help.
Baszler wants to defend the belts against all comers, inside TNA or elsewhere, and promised plenty of broken limbs along the way.
She also explained why she committed now. Baszler has been coaching and producing part-time at NXT and Evolve, and said word of that had gotten out. She said she has fallen in love with watching young wrestlers grow, but she is not ready to give up the ring.
The turning point, she said, was her Bloodsport match with Natalya. Baszler said Natalya told her afterward that the two of them can still go, and it made her realize she can too, and that no one does what she does the way she does it. Until she is satisfied someone can carry that style forward, she said, the itch to compete is not going away. “I think TNA is the perfect place for me right now,” Baszler said.
Baszler made her pro wrestling debut in 2015 after a long MMA career that includes 15 wins, 13 by submission. She is a two-time NXT Women’s Champion and three-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion, and she left WWE in 2025 after eight years with the company.