Shayna Baszler: Pro wrestling is just the worked version of MMA

Shayna Baszler was in the thick of training camp for her upcoming fight against Bethe Correia at UFC 177 when the opportunity came along to attend WWE SummerSlam in Los Angeles. What resulted was one of the best nights of her entire life.

Baszler and her three teammates -- UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir -- are nicknamed the Four Horsewomen after the famous pro wrestling faction 'The Four Horsemen', so it seemed natural for the group to enjoy a night out at a WWE event.  What Baszler didn't expect was the red-carpet treatment they received, from front-row seating at the show to an invitation to help WWE executive Stephanie McMahon complete her version of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

The highlight of the entire night came later when McMahon was walking to the ring for her own match and passed by the fighters and held up four fingers, which is the symbol used for the group 'The Four Horsewomen'. At that moment, Baszler couldn't hold back the sheer excitement she felt being acknowledged by McMahon while they sat in the crowd.

"It was amazing. When she walked by and flashed the fours it was like, I lost my mind," Baszler told FOX Sports on Thursday. "It was like the validation to be back there. Every wrestler when we were backstage knew who we were, a lot of them follow MMA and they are fans of the UFC. All of them were holding up the fours. It was awesome."

When Baszler and her team started being called 'The Four Horsewomen' after a fan actually sent them the idea via Twitter, it was all very tongue-in-cheek. At the time, none of the women imagined that it would be a concept that would actually develop into anything other than a funny inside joke between the fighters.

More and more fans started to pick up on the concept, and now anytime Baszler, Rousey, Duke and Shafir are together, the four fingers go in the air and it's another opportunity for the 'Four Horsewomen' to ride high in the spotlight. 

When the phenomenon first started, Baszler couldn't believe how fast it took off, but now she gets it more than ever because at the heart of it all -- whether some fans want to admit it or not -- pro wrestling and MMA aren't all that different.

"It's unbelievable that same kind of draw can happen. I've always said the thing about MMA that a lot of fighters don't understand is people care more about the story about why a fight's happening than the actual fight. If people want to see fights, they can turn on YouTube and not really worry about the history of it. What makes people want to watch it live is the storyline and it makes it easy when we can run with this Four Horsewomen thing," Baszler said.

"It's almost going to sound like a jerk thing to say, but it's so easy to manipulate the fans to love us or hate us. It's fun. It makes it really fun."

Baszler has been a pro wrestling fan most of her life, and training under UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett, who worked quite a few pro wrestling matches in Japan, didn't hurt either. While she has no intentions of retiring from fighting any time soon, Baszler can't deny that a move into pro wrestling one day would be a lot of fun.

Given the kind of response she already got from her brief appearance during SummerSlam along with the other three Horsewomen, there's already an audience who would tune into watch.

"I would love to do pro wrestling. One of the reasons I started pursuing MMA was for all the similarities to pro wrestling that it has," Baszler said. "If you do your history, pro wrestling is just the worked version of what MMA is. So I think it's not too far off. We'll see how long I fight cause if I fight too long, my body might not be able to handle pro wrestling, you never know."

Even Ric Flair, the founding member of the Four Horsemen, gave his approval to the ladies when he met them backstage at SummerSlam.

"You can't get a better blessing for it than that," Baszler said.

Baszler's fight this weekend against Correia has a pro-wrestling feeling already after the undefeated Brazilian prospect beat Duke in April and made a gesture towards her teammates in the corner. Correia held up the four fingers symbolizing the Four Horsewomen and then put one down to signify she's only got three of them left to defeat. 

It didn't take the UFC matchmakers long to capitalize on the opportunity and the Baszler vs. Correia fight came together in a hurry. 

Baszler embraces her inner pro wrestler so much that she channeled Flair to cut a promo in closing on her opponent this weekend. Unfortunately at no point did Baszler scream 'wooo' at the top of her lungs, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless.

"The thing is nobody was talking about her -- she didn't have exciting enough fights to be talked about until she tried to springboard off of our name and the name we've made and the branding we've done. So if she thinks is going to use us to springboard her career and lightspeed her to a title shot? That's a bummer for her," Baszler said.

"Undefeated, young up and comer, she was on a great ride and could have had a great run and it has to get derailed because she wants to take a shortcut."