Former WWE Star Reveals Scrapped World Championship Win Plans

A former WWE star has revealed scrapped plans for her to win a world championship during her first year on the company’s main roster.

In early 2020, after two dominant runs as NXT Women’s Champion and a record-breaking performance in the 2020 Women’s Royal Rumble, Shayna Baszler was called up to WWE Raw and looked immediately set for a major push.

After winning an Elimination Chamber match by taking out every other star involved, Baszler earned herself a shot at Becky Lynch’s WWE Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36.

While many fans expected the “Queen of Spades” to defeat “The Man” for the title, she instead lost, with Lynch then forfeiting the title due to her pregnancy just a month later.

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Baszler discussed her call-up and confirmed that she was originally told she would be dethroning Lynch for the title, only for plans to be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Baszler recalled:

“I was originally told, and who knows in this business, but I was originally told like ‘Yeah you’re going to go into a feud with Becky and eventually win the title off her’.

“COVID happens, and then we all get told, ‘Well there’s going to 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.”

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Baszler would then reveal she was also told that she was planned to win the Women’s Money in the Bank match prior to Lynch’s pregnancy announcement, only for Asuka to win that match and cash-in her opportunity to win the vacated title.

“[WWE said] ‘What we’re going to do is shoot Money in the Bank cinematic up the tower, you’re gonna win that and carry your feud on with Becky as Money in the Bank winner’. “We get there and they’re reading us the general idea for Money in the Bank in Titan Towers, [WWE said] ‘And then Asuka climbs and wins’.

“But they had told me, ‘Oh you’re gonna win Money in the Bank’. My newly called up NXT fresh meat [brain] is going, ‘Oh they’ve lost faith in me, they hate me they don’t want me to be in this, they’re taking me out of the thing, no this is so bad’.

“So I’m beating myself up, and then it was totally kayfabed to the locker room and everyone, Becky comes out and announces this whole thing about being pregnant and the winner of the Money in the Bank won the title.

“And I’m like ‘You guys couldn’t have just told me, because I’ve been thinking this whole time that I’m the worst and you guys hate me. You couldn’t have been like, ‘Hey it’s not you but we can’t tell you why, you’ll find out’.”

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While she would go on to find success in the WWE Women’s Tag Team Division – becoming a three-time champion – Baszler never won a world title during her tenure in the company, a run which came to an end in May 2025 when she was released by the company.

Baszler did however make a return to WWE TV at the special NXT homecoming show in September, giving Sol Ruca and Zaria a pep talk – an appearance Baszler explained during her interview with Chris Van Vliet.

For Baszler’s full comments on the appearance click here.

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