One of WWE’s most bizarre feuds of 2021
saw Alexa Bliss cause a rift between former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax. This would
culminate in a singles match at WWE
Hell in a Cell, where Bliss defeated Baszler by pinfall.
This supernatural storyline was quite the new experience for the former mixed martial artist, who up until this past year saw most of her feuds rooted in reality. Despite the other-worldly elements, Baszler said the numbers don’t lie.
“It’s funny – the Alexa stuff, if you look around that time on that episode of RAW, the next day it had 1.6 million views and the next-watched segment was, like, Drew with 480,000,” Baszler told
Metro UK. “So, as much as [certain fans] think you don’t like it, people clearly love it! And I just like doing that stuff because I get to show a different side with more layers.”
Before joining the main roster, Baszler dominated NXT. The Submission Magician
reigned as NXT Women’s Champion on two occasions for a combined 548 days and recorded impressive NXT
Takeover defenses against the likes of Bianca Belair and Kairi Sane.
Despite all of her accomplishments in the gimmick, Baszler recognizes that her no-nonsense character does have its limitations.
“If all I am is this, there’s only so much you can do with that,” Baszler said. “You can’t tell those deeper stories if you don’t have depth to a character.”
These wackier main roster feuds have encouraged Baszler to seek inspiration in other areas of popular fiction. She added that she’ll look at popular film franchises’ storylines and brainstorm ways to morph it into a squared circle narrative.
“‘How can I make this story in a wrestling sense?’ I always try to think about that too,” Baszler said. “I have friends who watch Marvel movies like, ‘How can we make this a cool wrestling story?'”
