She faced Samantha Gavere at NFF: The Breakout on March 10, 2007. She lost the fight by TKO in the third round. Baszler refers to her fans as the "Queen's Army." Mixed martial arts career Early career (2006–2007) īaszler faced Amanda Buckner at MFC: USA vs. Later, Barnett gave Baszler "The Queen of Spades" nickname due to her ability to perform card tricks – the card magic nickname also gives a nod to her " submission magic".
Baszler reluctantly agreed, and the guitar became a signature of her rockstar-like persona. īarnett suggested that Baszler carry an electric guitar to the cage to show that she was outspoken.
This proved to be somewhat difficult because she could not train with Barnett in Southern California, so Barnett wrote a syllabus and filmed a video to teach her the step-by-step techniques and concepts of catch wrestling and give her tips on how to improve her verbal skills. Martial arts background and persona īaszler, a Khun Kru in the Muay Thai boxing association and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, wanted to begin incorporating Josh Barnett's catch wrestling into her MMA training.
In 2015, she was cut from the UFC and started her professional wrestling career that same year, again receiving training from Barnett. In an audio interview on the Sherdog Radio Network, she dubbed the submission, which she created in training, as the "Shwing." Baszler was signed in 2013 by the UFC to participate on their reality television series The Ultimate Fighter – she would go on to have two professional bouts (0-2) in the company.
She had her first professional MMA fight in 2006 and gained recognition in the following years for the use of her hammerlock submission set-up while on her back a set-up which she has used to submit several opponents, including Roxanne Modafferi. Baszler is a former two-time and longest combined-reigning NXT Women's Champion and a two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion with Nia Jax.īaszler was trained in mixed martial arts (MMA) by former UFC fighter Josh Barnett and in catch wrestling by Billy Robinson. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand. Shayna Andrea Baszler ( / ˈ b eɪ z l ər/ BAYZ-ler born August 8, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist.