Zoey Serrano is celebrating championship success alongside Shayna Baszler in TNA Wrestling, but she does not want her return to a tag team to come at the expense of her individual ambitions.
Serrano and Baszler captured the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship at the 2026 Bound For Glory pay-per-view, quickly giving their reunited partnership a major place in the promotion’s Knockouts division. The pairing has also made a forceful statement beyond the tag title picture, as the two attacked Knockouts World Champion Indi Hartwell on the October 22 edition of Thursday Night iMPACT. Baszler then held Hartwell’s championship aloft to end the segment.
That combination of tag team gold and an apparent interest in the Knockouts World Title has positioned Serrano and Baszler as central figures in TNA. For Serrano, however, the current opportunity is not simply about settling back into a familiar role. She wants to balance the successful team with a chance to build a singles identity of her own.
Speaking on Busted Open, Serrano explained that she only learned shortly before it became official that Baszler had signed with TNA. While Daria Rae was already part of the environment, Serrano said she was unsure whether Baszler would ultimately join her in the company.
For more background on this topic, read TNA Impact Posts Viewership and Key Demo Growth Following Bound for Glory.
“Honestly, I didn’t really know if — I mean, obviously Daria was there and everything else but I didn’t know if Shayna was gonna come,” Serrano said. “So when she told me that she finally signed and that we were gonna be a team together, that was really exciting. I found out, I think, like four days ahead of time or something.”
The short notice made the reunion an especially rapid development. Once Baszler’s signing was in place, TNA Head of Creative Delirious moved quickly toward presenting the two as a unit. Serrano said the creative direction immediately centered on finding a team name and building the partnership.
While she was excited to work with Baszler again, Serrano said she had hoped to spend time as a singles competitor before entering another formal team. She described having spent her entire career in a tag-team setting and wanting room to discover who she could be on her own.
“I wanted to do my own thing,” Serrano said. “I was in a tag for the last — my entire career, so I was like, ‘I wanna go out and do a singles and figure myself out before I go back into another team.’”
Serrano said the team concept was not initially presented to her as a lengthy discussion or a decision in which she had much advance involvement. From her perspective, Baszler informed her that she had signed, and creative then proceeded with the idea that the two would operate together. Rather than allowing that to become a limitation, Serrano brought her goals directly to Delirious.
Her message was straightforward: she wants both. Serrano wants to be part of a championship-caliber tag team with Baszler, but she also wants individual matches, individual rivalries and the chance to grow into a more complete performer. She described her larger aim as becoming a workhorse for TNA while reconnecting with her own identity.
“I did have a talk with Delirious,” Serrano said. “I was like, ‘I still wanna do singles stuff. I wanna do both, and be a workhorse more than anything else and find myself.’ That’s really the goal at this point in my career is just finding myself again. Have fun with everything.”
That approach could be valuable for Serrano in a division where a wrestler’s role can evolve quickly. Holding the Knockouts World Tag Team Championship provides immediate prominence, regular stakes and a clear connection to one of the division’s most accomplished combatants in Baszler. At the same time, a parallel singles path would allow Serrano to develop without waiting for the tag title reign to end before pursuing personal goals.
It also gives TNA several potential directions without requiring Serrano and Baszler to abandon the partnership that has already produced gold. The champions can defend the tag titles while Serrano competes in singles bouts. Baszler’s confrontation with Hartwell indicates that the duo may not be content with dominating just one championship scene. Whether that leads to an official title challenge has not been confirmed, but their attack on Hartwell placed the Knockouts World Championship firmly in their orbit.
Serrano Says Creative Has Been Receptive
Importantly, Serrano said her conversation with Delirious was productive. She characterized communication with TNA’s creative lead as easier than she expected and said the ideas she has presented have been welcomed rather than dismissed.
“It’s so much easier to actually go up and talk to Delirious,” Serrano said. “I feel like everything I pitched to him, he was just like, ‘Yeah. We’ll do it on this show.’”
Serrano added that pitching ideas can also help a busy creative process, suggesting that bringing forward concepts of her own may help take some responsibility off Delirious’ plate. More significantly, she said she received reassurance in a text message that singles material remains part of the plan.
“He sent me a text saying, ‘Don’t worry. We’re gonna still do singles’ and everything,” Serrano said. “So I’m excited to mix both of doing both singles route and tag… I love working with Shayna but, I definitely wanna see where I could go with the singles route.”
The reassurance matters because Serrano’s ambitions are not framed as dissatisfaction with Baszler or with the team’s immediate success. In fact, she was clear that she enjoys working alongside Baszler. Their Bound For Glory victory established them as a decorated act from the beginning of Baszler’s TNA tenure, and their shared edge was evident when they targeted Hartwell days later.
Instead, Serrano is seeking range. A wrestler can be a champion in a team and still pursue a distinctive individual voice, particularly in a roster setting that demands versatility. Her stated interest in “finding myself again” suggests that the singles matches are about more than simply adding another championship pursuit. They are about testing different matchups, presenting different sides of her character and seeing how far she can go when the spotlight is focused entirely on her.
Tag Champions With Eyes on a Bigger Picture
For now, Serrano and Baszler remain the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champions, a status that puts them in line for future challengers and title defenses. Their partnership has momentum, and their recent actions have made it difficult to view them solely as champions concerned with the tag division.
The attack on Indi Hartwell was a direct escalation. By closing the segment with Hartwell’s title in her hands, Baszler delivered a visual message that the Knockouts World Championship is of interest. Serrano’s presence in that attack reinforces the idea that the champions are prepared to exert influence across the division, even as Serrano seeks room to operate independently.
There is no announced singles program for Serrano at this stage, nor has TNA confirmed how her individual goals will be incorporated into upcoming television. Still, Serrano’s comments make clear that the subject has already been addressed internally. She has voiced what she wants, and she says creative has responded positively.
That leaves Serrano with an intriguing challenge: capitalize on the momentum of a title-winning reunion while ensuring the team becomes a platform rather than a boundary. If TNA follows through on the plans communicated to her, Serrano could have the opportunity to strengthen the tag division with Baszler and simultaneously establish herself in the singles ranks.
For Serrano, that balance is the priority. She has championship gold, a powerful partner, and what appears to be an open line of communication with the person directing TNA creative. Now she wants the matches and stories that will allow her to show the full scope of what she can do.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.