How WWE Destroyed Shayna Baszler
There's another day to dig deep into Rhea Ripley's own main roster...ahem...nightmare, but Shayna Baszler's was obscured by an Elimination Chamber 2020 performance that was, in hindsight, too good to be true.
On the final pay-per-view before the pandemic hit, 'The Queen Of Spades' shovelled dirt on the Raw Women's division in some booking so committed that it actually alleviated the concerns of many that couldn't understand why she'd not been given the Royal Rumble win a month prior.
Her decimation of Natalya, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan and Asuka was so profoundly terrifying that it might have actually been more effective than being booked to point at the sign in January. What's so special about throwing people over the top rope to the floor when you can maul them in a cage instead?
It was altogether more on-the-nose than NXT had ever been with her, but the messaging was crystal clear - Becky Lynch was really really good, but she wasn't ready for the terrors that awaited on 'The Grandest Stage'.
Oh also Shayna wasn't a vampire anymore.
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