Ex-WWE Champion Denies Ever Being “Female Brock Lesnar”
A former champion in WWE denies ever being booked like Brock Lesnar.
Shayna Baszler had an eight-year run in WWE from 2017 until she was released in May 2025 after being part of the Pure Fusion Collective group on the Raw brand.
During her WWE run, Baszler was very successful in NXT, where she was a 2-time NXT Women’s Champion. However, Baszler failed to win a singles Women’s Title on the main roster. She did, however, have success as a 3-time Women’s Tag Team Champion on the main roster.
As a singles star on the main roster, Baszler had her biggest push in early 2020. In the main event of the 2020 WWE Elimination Chamber, Shayna Baszler defeated Sarah Logan, Ruby Riott, Natalya, Liv Morgan, and Asuka to win the match in the most dominant way in Elimination Chamber history.
That Elimination Chamber win set up Baszler for the Raw Women’s Title held by Becky Lynch. At the time, many fans compared Baszler’s booking to how Brock Lesnar was frequently booked as the most dominant woman in the company.
In an interview with Insight’s Chris Van Vliet, Shayna Baszler spoke about how she didn’t agree with Brock Lesnar comparisons.
“Yeah, so I had some issue with this, because I don’t think even black and gold, I don’t think I was female Brock Lesnar ever. I think that’s a bad analogy. I think it’s an easy comparison to make, because oh, this badass. And also MMA.”
Shayna Baszler’s Brock Lesnar-Like Push Was Stopped Because Of COVID-19
By mid-March 2020, after Baszler’s dominant Elimination Chamber match showing, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the world was shut down, including WWE. The company was forced to tape shows at the WWE Performance Center (and later in empty arenas in Florida), including WrestleMania 36.
When Van Vliet mentioned that Baszler dominated the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, people mentioned Brock Lesnar in relation to her push.
“I think in that sense, yes. I feel like there was some setup. And it’s hard to say. I know I get a lot of times, and I very much appreciate fans that are like, ‘Oh, man, they really fumbled the ball with you.’ ‘Man, that Elimination Chamber. What were they thinking?’ But it’s hard to say because of what happened in the world.”
As she continued, Baszler spoke about how her Brock Lesnar-like push was going to lead to the Raw Women’s Title, but it didn’t end up happening for her.
“I was originally told, and who knows in this business, but I was originally told, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna go into a feud with Becky and eventually win the title off her.’ COVID happens, and then we all get told, well, there’s gonna be no audience, so we want a title change like that to happen in front of a live crowd. And remember, at that time, we didn’t know this was going to be like a year.
So we’ll wait till we get back to live crowds, and we’ll just keep extending the thing, and then Becky gets pregnant, and they don’t want to just award a title to me.”
After her release, Baszler revealed that she had about three years left on her contract when WWE chose to release her.