When Shayna Baszler made the transition from MMA to wrestling, she didn\’t have very high hopes of joining WWE. It was before the Women\’s Revolution and the company wasn\’t interested in signing competitors like her. The indie scene in US was also popularized by high-flying wrestlers. Her old-school style was not what fans looked for and at first, Baszler didn\’t feel very good about her chances.
The former NXT women\’s champion recently recalled this time during her appearance on Out of Character. She mentioned how the first time she felt confident was in Japan because the people there loved her style.
She still had a tryout with WWE before the inaugural Mae Young Classic. Though after not hearing back from officials for six months, Shayna had given up the hope of ever signing with the company. This is when the unexpected happened:
\’I\’ll Probably Never Get Signed\’
\”I had my tryout, didn\’t hear anything back. I went to Japan and I remember, we had gone on a dojo I was with. We had gone on a vacation.\” recalled Shayna Baszler, \”I was sitting in a hot tub at this spa. I remember being like, \’You know what? This is pretty awesome. I\’ll probably never get signed.\’ I haven\’t heard back from them.
She continued: \”This is cool though. I\’m traveling all over the world and I was like, \’This is awesome. I\’m living a pretty sweet life.\’ So I had kind of like decided \’Okay I did it, it\’s not a big deal [that] I didn\’t make it\’ Then almost within the week that I got home from Japan, I got a call about the Mae Young Classic. So [it\’s] kind of wild.\”
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