5 Reasons it doesn't matter that Shayna Baszler didn't win the WWE Royal Rumble

Shayna Baszler absolutely dominated tonight's Elimination Chamber main event - and punched her ticket to face Becky Lynch for the RAW Women's Championship at WrestleMania next month - right in the face. In fact, she decimated her opponents so intensely, it caused some questions - to put it mildly - among wrestling fans on social media.

"If they were gonna have her so dominate here," many asked, "why didn't they just have her win the Royal Rumble instead?"

Well, the simple answer is "who cares?" but, that doesn't make for a very good article, so... let me expand upon that.

So, here are five reasons why it doesn't matter that "The Queen" won this year's women's Royal Rumble match and "The Queen of Spades" didn't.

#5 Because she just didn't

The rules of a battle royale - and WWE's Royal Rumble in particular - are pretty clear. You fall over the top rope and both of your feet touch the floor, you're eliminated. It's kind of a simple concept.

During the 2020 women's Royal Rumble match, Shayna Baszler got knocked over the top rope and both her feet hit the floor.

She didn't get pinned. She didn't submit. She fell.

OK, now, before you get all snarky on me, the point I'm trying to make here is that falling out of the ring over the ropes isn't the same as losing a match. That's the thing about matches like that - anything can happen.

It doesn't matter why Shayna didn't win - Vince's last-minute decision? The plan all along? - the point is... who cares? We're still getting Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch vs Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania next month.

Do you really care how they got to that?

And, on that point....

#4. Charlotte needed the win to help Rhea Ripley and NXT

Charlotte didn't just win the Rumble match for no reason...

In case you hadn't heard, winning the Royal Rumble match - no matter your gender - is a pretty big damn deal. You know, title match at WrestleMania and all that. It's a little bit more prestigious than, say, getting a championship match at... well... Elimination Chamber, for example.

I may be way off base, but it feels to me that having the winner of the Rumble match challenge for the NXT Women's Championship is also a pretty big damn deal. Especially if it's from a star such as Charlotte Flair who, in case you hadn't heard, has won a few titles of her own over the years. Becky Lynch might be the most over star in the women's division (or the whole damn company, for that matter), but Charlotte has the championship history to help make new stars.

Point is, if Shayna wins the Rumble match, there's no Rhea Ripley in a WrestleMania match. Sure, they could write some convoluted story to make the story happen, but it wouldn't have nearly the same impact. Flair using her hard fought Rumble victory to go after the NXT Women's Championship elevates both the title and her opponent. And, it makes their match that much more special.

#3 Baszler is a cage fighter

The Queen of Spades back in her MMA days

I don't know if you had heard this before, but former NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler used to fight in MMA. I know - shocking, right?

I realize they played up the whole "she started as a cage fighter" angle since the Elimination Chamber match was announced - almost to the point of annoyance. WWE does that sometimes, in case you hadn't noticed. But, it makes a lot of sense, too.

Baszler is closely associated with another former MMA star, Ronda Rousey. You may have heard of her. However, while Rousey is certainly famous for her success in UFC, she's moved beyond that as far as public perception goes. Yes, MMA fighting is how she made her name, but when the average person thinks of Ronda Rousey, they probably just imagine a badass punching and kicking the bejesus out of someone - in a cage or not.

Baszler, on the other hand, doesn't have the same persona with the general public - or the WWE fans, for that matter. That's not her fault, it's just how it is. But, when you talk about Shayna's past accomplishments, you tend to focus on where those accomplishments happened. In her case, the octagon with a cage surrounding it.

So, it makes sense that if she's going to challenge for a championship at WrestleMania, she should earn it while fighting inside WWE's ultimate cage match.

#2 Baszler's performance at EC makes her more of a threat than a Rumble win could ever do

Did you watch that main event at Elimination Chamber? Did you see what Shayna Baszler did to those other competitors? That may be the most dominant performance in that particular match ever - and, again, of any gender.

In the parlance of the times, she's absolutely pownd. Is that right? I'm not sure how slang works anymore. Whatever. What I'm saying is, she absolutely destroyed her competition, including former badass (sorry, Asuka) Asuka. She eliminated every single other participant in that match, and I'm not entirely sure she broke anything close to a sweat.

If you have ever read a comic book (or just a book book), watched a movie, or seen a TV show (raise your hand if you haven't done any of those), you probably know how this works. No matter the humble beginnings your hero has to overcome, if they keep succeeding in their story, eventually it stops being interesting. You need a villain that has an advantage over the hero to keep your audience riveted.

Shayna Baszler's performance in the 2020 Royal Rumble was awesome, but even if she had won, it simply wasn't going to have the same impact as her win tonight did. As I mentioned in my first point, it's not as difficult to get someone to fall out of the ring as it is to win an actual match by actual match rules.

Instead, Shayna tore out of that Elimination Chamber pod and destroyed everyone in the Chamber with her. In fact, the time it took to eliminate everyone else from the match took less time than the video package about the match. I think. probably.

My point being, Lynch's match with Baszler going into WrestleMania is going to have way more impact and suspense because Shayna won the Elimination Chamber match as opposed to the Royal Rumble.

#1 Because wrestling

OK, this is about to get personal. But not angry. In fact, it's very positive!.

Look. I get it. We invest our time into the stories the entertainment industry - not just WWE - is telling. And, when that story makes a turn we don't like, we get upset.

I don't mean that condescendingly, either. It's not just our hard-earned money we spend to find out where these stories go. Our personal time is also important (I'm a dad, I know how much of a premium personal time can be at). We only have so much time and attention, and we can use it to focus so many things.

A story we invest our attention to may not end the way we want it to, but if it doesn't end in a way that makes sense compared to the rest of the story, that's infuriating. Game of Thrones fans, I hear you.

Over the years, pro wrestling has helped me in a lot of ways. It's helped me appreciate different ways to tell a story. It's helped me appreciate taking better care of my physical well being. It's helped me meet some amazing people and make some lifelong friends. I wouldn't be a professional writer now if it weren't for this industry.

You wouldn't be reading this right now if pro wrestling hadn't come into my life and, no joke, made it better.

So... that being said...

It's pro wrestling, guys. Settle down.

Edited by Zaid Khan