As expected, Shayna Baszler emerged victorious in the women's Elimination Chamber match on Sunday to set up a dream showdown against Becky Lynch for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 36.
Baszler eliminated all five challengers - Asuka, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Natalya and Sarah Logan - to earn her title opportunity in Tampa Bay. The former UFC talent also became the first wrestler to eliminate every single competitor in an Elimination Chamber match.
Days before the match, however, it was reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Vince McMahon was having doubts that about placing Baszler in a major WrestleMania match.
But it sounds like Paul Heyman played the instrumental role in making sure that Baszler walked out of Elimination Chamber as the winner.
According to Paul Davis of WrestlingNews.co, the Raw Executive Director "is very high on Baszler," despite Vince's "doubts about her." Baszler's supreme Elimination Chamber dominance was previously an idea Heyman had for CM Punk, which WWE never wound up using. Davis said that Vince "shot down" that idea at the time.
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Despite Vince's apparent uncertainty on Baszler, there wasn't much doubt about who would win the Elimination Chamber match. WWE had spent plenty of time building up the Baszler-Lynch match, after all, and there was no way they could move away from it at this stage.
It was known for a while that Heyman was keen on Cedric Alexander and Ricochet, but Vince reportedly ended the pushes for both superstars. It's now up to both Heyman and Baszler to show the WWE chairman that she's worthy of a long-term look in the main event spotlight.
McMahon Needs To Trust Heyman
There are too many cases where Vince ignores what the fans want, and just when Heyman is on the verge of completing a special plan, the WWE chairman always seems to scrap it. Alexander and Ricochet especially deserved longer pushes that ended way too quickly. Baszler is more than over as a heel right now, and it'd be a huge mistake on Vince's end to scrap it. He needs to trust Heyman and let the Raw Executive Director see his ideas and plans through.