"I was so frustrated" - Shayna Baszler discusses her WrestleMania 36 match against Becky Lynch
Shayna Baszler has admitted she was “so frustrated” about the circumstances surrounding her WrestleMania 36 match against Becky Lynch.
The RAW Women’s Championship match was supposed to be held in front of over 70,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the match took place without any fans in attendance at WWE’s Performance Center training facility in Orlando.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso, Baszler recalled how she felt “really angry” about the situation. She also questioned whether WWE’s decision-makers would have booked her to win the match if it took place in front of a crowd.
“I remember pulling up to the Performance Center for WrestleMania, sitting in my car, and feeling really angry. We’d worked too hard. I was so frustrated. Would things have been different with a crowd? Or did things change because of it? There are so many what-ifs, but you can’t sit and dwell on it.”
Baszler was widely expected to end Lynch’s year-long title reign after making a dominant start to life on WWE’s main roster in early 2020. As it turned out, Lynch retained the RAW Women’s Championship in a match lasting just eight minutes.
Becky Lynch wanted Shayna Baszler to defeat her
Becky Lynch has not competed in a WWE match since she defeated Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania 36. One month after the pay-per-view, the WrestleMania 35 main-eventer announced her pregnancy and relinquished the RAW Women’s Championship.
In July 2020, Lynch said on The Bellas Podcast that she wanted to lose her title to Baszler at WrestleMania 36.
“I actually thought I was going to lose the title at WrestleMania, which I also pitched, but that was the end of it. Plans change.”
Although she is a two-time Women’s Tag Team Champion, Shayna Baszler has still never held the RAW Women’s Championship. She lost her latest pay-per-view match against Alexa Bliss at Sunday’s Hell in a Cell event.
By contrast, Becky Lynch recently stepped up her return to the ring by working out at WWE’s Performance Center. According to PW Insider’s Mike Johnson, she trained in the ring with NXT’s Indi Hartwell last week.