How Did Ronda Rousey Gett Into Pro Wrestling? Training Partner Reveals: “If it wasn’t for me…”

Pro wrestling star and former MMA fighter Shayna Baszler has hinted that she could be one of the reasons why Ronda Rousey wound up getting into the sport.

As we know, Ronda Rousey’s greatest legacy will forever be what she achieved in mixed martial arts. In the wake of her exploits at the Olympics, Ronda went on to have a really strong MMA career, only for it to end on a somewhat sour note as she dropped losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. From there, she walked away from the UFC before going on to compete for WWE as a pro wrestler.

Ronda Rousey was even able to main event WrestleMania in 2019, becoming the first to do so alongside her dance partners Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. While her overall run in WWE tends to receive mixed reviews more often than not, nobody can deny that Ronda brought a lot of eyes to the product.

Shayna Baszler, who has enjoyed a really strong run in wrestling, had the following to say about Ronda Rousey’s entry into the business in a recent interview.

Shayna Baszler on Ronda Rousey’s move into pro wrestling

“Ronda has said in interviews that she saw me pro‑wrestle, fall out of love with MMA, pro‑wrestle, be happy, love it, and therefore fall back in love with MMA. And she has said in interviews I’ve heard her say that she saw that in me and it made her want to try it. I was the one that reserved the TV in the house we were all living together, and I was going to watch Raw and Smackdown and we’re going to watch all the pay‑per‑views.

“At the end of a hard training day, you guys were doing like two‑a‑days, fight practice—you don’t want to move. So Ronda would just park herself on the couch and then I would turn wrestling on and she got sucked in. So yeah, I’ll—you know, not saying Ronda wouldn’t have done wrestling if it wasn’t for me, but…”​

The two wound up having an ‘MMA Rules’ match back at SummerSlam 2023, which Baszler won.