Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey will face off in an MMA Rules match at WWE SummerSlam tomorrow night. The hotly anticipated bout comes on the heels of Baszler turning on Rousey at WWE Money In The Bank, costing the duo their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships and effectively handing them to Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. In the wake of that blindside by Baszler, the two women have taken to WWE Raw microphones to air their grievances with one another.
The match will undoubtedly be a hard-hitting and brutal affair, but questions about how an MMA Rules match will be carried out in WWE have remained. Earlier today, at the WWE SummerSlam media junket, I asked Baszler if her encounter with Rousey will occur in some kind of cage, as previous MMA-styled WWE bouts have within The Lions Den and Fit Pit.
“I think it’s gonna be a ring, honestly,” she revealed. “And that’s just me surmising because of the stadium and the logistics of everything involved. However, people might not know this if they’re, especially if they’re recent fans, especially if they’re just fans of MMA in the United States, but there’s a lot of MMA, and I’ve fought a lot of MMA in a ring. When you look at old Pride Fighting in Japan, that was in a ring.
“In fact, a lot of pro wrestlers fought with their martial art as professional wrestling in Pride Fighting. So, I think it’s very limiting to say this has to be in a cage. This has to be the thing. It’s not real MMA. I mean, the rule sets vary so much for MMA; it’s just that people maybe aren’t as aware of some of them.”
While discussing her impending MMA Rules match against Rousey, I asked if a UFC referee would be better equipped to officiate the bout. With Endeavor’s acquisition of WWE nearly complete, the sports entertainment juggernaut and UFC will share space under the TKO Holdings umbrella, possibly paving the way for someone like “Big” John McCarthy to appear at SummerSlam.
“I would like it just because those guys are familiar with who we are and what we can take,” she explained. “Because always, the fear with a referee is that they’ll stop the fight too soon, and I get that they have to keep fighter safety in mind, but that’s always kind of like, the fear is like, do they know that I’m willing to let this go a little bit further than usual? Do they know that if I’m being punched in the head, maybe I’m okay? I’d like to just for familiarity purposes, but hopefully, I don’t leave this up to a referee or judge.”
My full conversation with Baszler will air as part of this Tuesday’s Haus of Wrestling episode, also featuring Cameron “Ceehawk” Hawkins. It will first be released in video form at Noon EST on Premier Streaming Network before being released in audio form on the Haus of Wrestling podcast feed.
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