Interesting Note On Shayna Baszler’s Raw Underground Opponent

Maybe not so real? One of the biggest stories of the last two weeks of Monday Night Raw has been Raw Underground. The idea is a pretty unique one as Shane McMahon is running an underground fight club at the WWE Performance Center. This includes a variety of wrestlers trying their hands at more realistic fights with far less rules. Some of the participants are names that shouldn’t surprise you, but one of the behind the scenes notes might.

Wrestling has always drawn athletes from other sports but in recent years, mixed martial arts has become one of the biggest talent pools for the wrestling world. It makes sense when you think about it as they are both combat based and the cage is a lot like a wrestling ring. There are a lot of similarities and several mixed martial artists have gotten into wrestling with some strong success. That was not the case on Monday, but it was by design.

According to Wrestling Observer Live, one of the three women whom Shayna Baszler defeated in a fight on Raw Underground was told not to use her mixed martial arts training. Emily Andzulis has had an amateur mixed martial arts fight and has jiu-jitsu training but was told to show no skill as Baszler attacked her. Andzulis was signed in January after appearing on the first season of The Titan Games.

Baszler looked dominant last night. Check out the fight:

Opinion: I get this, but at the same time it could make sense to have Baszler beat up someone with a little more skill. It is impressive to beat up three people at once, but wouldn’t it be a little more impressive to have one of them be someone who could fight back? What they did worked out well, but it could have been a better showing from Baszler with another idea thrown in.

What did you think of the segment? Have you liked Raw Underground? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!