Being The Man: How Becky Lynch’s Meteoric Rise Positioned Her as the Top Dog Heading Into 2019
Becky Lynch became one of WWE’s biggest stars in 2018. Now, she’s looking to become a wrestling icon in 2019.
Pro wrestling is extremely unique in many ways that sports are not. One of the biggest differences that separate wrestling from other sports is that fans play a big role in who is and is not featured on a week to week basis. Obviously this isn’t always the case, as some of the most beloved wrestlers can still go years without seeing any significant success (sorry Zack Ryder), but fans can make or break a wrestler’s place on the card sometimes.
Becky Lynch is one of the biggest success stories of 2018, especially in this sense. Becky Lynch had always been a fan favorite in WWE, even as far back as her days in NXT. With some of the incredible matches she put on in NXT (remember her classic against Sasha Banks?), it’s no wonder why she was almost instantly over once hitting the main roster.
As the inaugural SmackDown Women’s champion, fans anticipated big things to be done with Becky following the brand split in 2016.
Watch this video of the fallout of Backlash 2016, the night that Becky Lynch won the SmackDown Women’s title for the first time, and look at the beautiful emotion shown by Lynch. As subtle as it is at times, it’s noticeable that this was a “almost too good to be true” moment for her, a dream of her’s that she’d wanted to achieve for years. It was moments like these that helped the WWE Universe fall in love with her.
Fast forward nearly two years later to the weeks leading up to Summerslam 2018. After losing the SmackDown Women’s title to Alexa Bliss three months after her coronation, Becky Lynch slid back into the midcard of the women’s division and remained there until the WWE Universe was not having it anymore. Becky was thrown into a triple threat match at Summerslam for the title against Charlotte Flair and then- champion Carmella. Once again gaining the traction that she’d momentarily lost, Becky was red hot heading into her title match at Summerslam. She did not win the match, much to the dismay of the fans in attendance at the Barclays Center, but what happened after the final bell perhaps changed the course of WWE for the next year. Seemingly embracing her best friend and winner of the match, Charlotte Flair was brutally attacked by Becky Lynch, leading into one of the hottest feuds of the latter half of the year in WWE.
Becky became one of the most over superstars of the last few years over the course of the next few months. Winning the title a month later from Charlotte only increased her popularity with the crowd. She proceeded to hold the title through the majority of the rest of 2018, including some of the best main roster matches of the year with the likes of Charlotte at Evolution and both Charlotte and Asuka at TLC, where she dropped the title to Asuka. She may not be the Smackdown Women’s champion anymore, but that may not matter at this point. Becky Lynch has left her mark and the ripple effect is only just beginning.
In a year filled with crazy twists and turns in the world of wrestling, maybe the craziest part is that 2018 will end with the talk being about Becky Lynch. Becky has managed to flip both the WWE and pro wrestling as a whole into a 180 in the second half of the year. She hasn’t taken the smooth, clear path to the top like many others ahead of her. She’s taken her confidence and the love from her fans around the world and molded it into a newfound confidence and edge to her character, even dubbing herself “The Man”. In a business that has a history of being ruled by males, that is huge. Not only has Becky Lynch become quite possibly the most popular name in WWE, but she may have become so popular that WWE has looked into changing their plans for their biggest show of 2019. Rumors have begun to leak out that Becky Lynch may have found herself a place in the WrestleMania main event, likely with Ronda Rousey, which would be the first women’s main event in the history of the show. Regardless of what happens, Becky has a strong argument of being WWE’s MVP of 2018.
Where did Becky find this new fire and drive? As stated earlier, she’s found a new confidence and swagger about herself, and the badass feel she’s given to her character is incredibly fresh. She’s been compared to wrestling legends such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, and legends of her home country of Ireland like Conor McGregor. Truthfully, there is no comparison that can fully depict the changes of Becky Lynch. It can simply be looked at in a way that “The Man” has just become a more daring character that is now letting out frustration of the previous two years that she was kept out of the title picture. It is often said that the best characters in wrestling are the ones that take their own personalities and turn it up to 11. Sometimes it seems that that’s exactly what Lynch has done.
If there is one moment that can be pinpointed as the defining moment of Becky Lynch’s evolution, let me take you back to the November 12th edition of Monday Night Raw, the week before Survivor Series where Becky Lynch was slated to take on Ronda Rousey in what was likely going to be the main event of the show, as the fans were not hotter for any other build up. With Survivor Series just six days away, Becky Lynch created one of the most iconic moments in the history of wrestling, attacking Ronda Rousey in her own Raw locker room. The cameramen rushed to the backstage site of the destruction, looking on as Becky Lynch had Ronda Rousey trapped in the Dis-Arm-Her. Screaming in agony, Ronda had nowhere to go as Becky yelled “You see what happens when The Man comes around!? Everyone’s tough until The Man comes around!”
Up to this point, the former UFC Bantamweight champion had never been shown dominated as she was in this snippet. As significant as this moment was, that was not the end of it. Becky remained backstage as her music hit around the arena. She strolled out, appearing ready to attack the Raw women’s division, who were all standing in the ring, on her own. The rest of SmackDown’s women came out from the seating area of the arena as the crowd rose to their feet, sensing the impending fight. As said fight raged on in and out of the ring, a botch took place between Nia Jax and Becky Lynch where Nia Jax knocked Becky senseless with a clenched right first. Seemingly alarming at the time, this botch took a great moment and turned it into an iconic one.
After being hit, Becky hit the deck, obviously in shock with the force of the blow she’d been dealt. It was later learned that she immediately suffered a broken nose and concussion from the shot. Nevertheless, The Man rose to her feet again to finish the segment. Dazed and blood spilling from her face, Becky beat down Ronda Rousey, who rushed the ring shortly after Lynch got back on her feet, with a steel chair, standing over her momentarily before exiting the arena through the crowd. Before exiting back to the backstage area again, Becky turned around again at the top of the stairs to soak in the moment. Blood streaming down her face and arms out wide to soak in the ovation from the WWE Universe, Becky Lynch went from a hero to an icon in one moment.
As previously alluded to, Becky Lynch lost her women’s title in a triple threat TLC match at TLC, a title that Asuka captured in a match that contends for main roster match of the year. As also previously alluded to, at this point she may not even need the title. Her popularity is in rarefied air, as she has transcended the title and become a special attraction in her own right. The title did not make Becky Lynch — she was a fan favorite before she picked up the title and will be wildly popular long after the TLC match where she lost it. Rather than her picking up steam due to being champion, Becky gained her traction with her deep- cutting promos and a top tier social media game, another aspect that has started becoming important when it comes to winning fans over. Becky is constantly promoting herself on Twitter, which is becoming a great asset to getting yourself over when not on TV. Of course, it’s not completely about building yourself up. You have to be able to back it up as well, which Becky has done extremely well. In fact, she’s been involved in two of the best WWE matches of this year, with Charlotte at Evolution and the triple threat match at TLC. Many are now speculating that a triple threat match is planned between Becky, Charlotte, and Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania to settle the score, as all three have had their fair share of run ins to end 2018.
With that in mind, the resounding opinion among WWE fans is that, whether it’s a triple threat match or Charlotte is dropped from the match and we are left with the Ronda Rousey vs Becky Lynch match that we were robbed of at Survivor Series, the match is worthy of being the main event of WrestleMania 35 in New York. Although the original rumored plan was Charlotte vs Rousey, it seems Becky has created so much noise in the world of wrestling that she has found enough popularity to warrant her being included in the WrestleMania bout.
Becky Lynch has always made the most of the cards she’d been dealt. Though she wasn’t given much, Lynch made the most of everything she had to work with in 2018 and is now the hottest act in professional wrestling because of it. Her revival has turned into the biggest story of the year. Heading into 2019, Becky Lynch is now the top dog in the industry with no signs of slowing down. Her story will be the hottest thing going as we enter the new year. She became WWE’s megastar this year. Now with 2019 on the horizon and the company backing her, imagine what she’s going to do now.
