Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler captured the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on last week’s Monday Night Raw. As of this week, Baszler now dominates the titles’ record books by tying the record for most reigns (three) and breaking the record for most combined days with the gold (222+ days). Meanwhile, Rousey joined an exclusive list by becoming the eighth Women’s Triple Crown Champion in WWE history, joining The Four Horsewomen, Asuka, Alexa Bliss and Rhea Ripley. The idea of the two former MMA stars winning the tag titles had been rumored for months, and according to Baszler, the decision was only made after Rousey put her foot down with WWE officials.ย
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“Ronda is Ronda, right. She’s been (involved with the) main title, she main evented WrestleMania. She still gets one of the loudest pops when we walk out. This was something she demanded,” Baszler explained in a recent interview with Cheap Heat (h/t TJRWrestling). “We’d been asking for it forever, but she finally put her foot down and went to the office and said, ‘Listen, we’ve been asking for this forever. You keep telling us, ‘After, after, after this [and] this.’”
“I honestly don’t know if she hadn’t done that, if they ever would have got to it,” she continued. “I wasn’t in a position yet to be elevated to a Ronda level, so the fact that Ronda said, ‘No, stop. I’ve done this. I want to do this because this is why I started wrestling.’ So I think that’s huge. She could be main-eventing SummerSlam. She doesn’t have to be where she is, which is elevating these titles.”
Baszler also emphasized that the pair want to elevate the titles to help the WWE’s Women’s Division. Unfortunately, the women’s tag titles have often been treated as an afterthought and have often been passed around by teams randomly cobbled together.
“Yeah, it’s just a direction that I don’t think they would have looked at, just because Ronda is who she is. As much as, love her or hate her, she brings eyes, and that’s the way she’s always been. She was that way in MMA,” Baszler explained. “I at least want people to understand, this is happening because she demanded it. She demanded to work with me as a friend, so it’s cool to have someone who truly isn’t out for themselves. In show business, that’s so rare, so it’s very cool.”
