Shayna Baszler says Ronda Rousey ‘demanded’ WWE make them a tag team

Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler captured the WWE Women’s Tag titles last Monday night.

It’s a move we’d been hearing about for a while. Most recently, there were reports the two mixed martial arts pioneers would have won the belts at WrestleMania 39 if it hadn’t been for Rousey’s training injury.

To hear Baszler tell it, as she did on Cheap Heat this week, they never would have been paired up at all if Ronda hadn’t “put her foot down” with WWE management.

“Ronda is Ronda, right. She’s been main title, she main-evented WrestleMania. She still gets one of the loudest pops when we walk out. This was something she demanded. 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.

“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.”

Elevating the Women’s Tag Team championship, and the women’s division in general, is something Rousey’s been talking about quite a bit lately. Because of how she delivers the message, and things she’s said in the past, Ronda’s criticism hasn’t been embraced by the fan base. Baszler says that’s just how it goes with Rousey, but that her heart is in the right place:

“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. 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.”

Agree with Shayna that this was a cool move by Ronda? Do you think their run with them is going to elevate the Tag titles? Let us know in the comments below.

H/t Fightful for transcription