‘I can’t see why we can’t headline WrestleMania’, says women’s champion Becky Lynch
The women’s division across WWE is probably at its highest peak we’ve ever seen it right now. From the incredible matches stemming from the girls of NXT, to the Women’s Championship match stealing the show at this past WrestleMania. Now new SmackDown’s Women’s Champion says the next step for them is to surely headline next year’s showpiece WrestleMania 33 - possibly alongside fellow Horsewomen Sasha Banks, Charlotte and Bayley.
“I don’t see a reason why we all couldn’t main event WrestleMania next year” Becky told on a conference call prior to her first SmackDown Live as the brand’s first ever champion.
“That’s the next step. Once you’ve reached one goal you’re onto the next and we’ve got to keep working hard to achieve that. I never really stop to celebrate each step, because I’m always looking to what’s next, but it’s one thing to get to a certain level but we have to also maintain that. But you never know what will happen, it would be an amazing moment for all of us for sure.”
Sunday’s title win in the women’s six-pack challenge - overcoming the rest of the brands division in a stellar opener to Backlash - marked Becky’s rise to the very top of the women’s game in WWE, so has the title win sunk in yet?
“It hasn’t really, it’s really cool but I think it’s going take some time to sink in. It was really cool today I did a hospital visit and the kids were so excited to see the title and that made it sink in a little bit more. Just seeing their excitement is kind of how I feel, so it’s like getting that confirmation.
It meant everything because this is what I wanted, this is everything I’ve always worked towards and I wanted the women to be in that spot where we had a good amount of time and tell good stories and we feel like we did that at Backlash, and all the girls shone in the match and I’m so excited for the future. It meant a lot that I’m the first champion, as then you’re down in the history books. A title had so far eluded me having lost at Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, so to me this is everything.”
The win solidifies the faith show in the Dublin native by SmackDown General Manger Daniel Bryan and Commissioner Shane McMahon, who picked Lynch as the brand’s first female pick. A pressure Becky has had to live-up in the first few weeks of the brand extension, but one she is now relishing as the blue brand’s first champion.
“I do yeah, I feel a pressure but it’s a good pressure, you know. One I feel I’m ready for, one that I feel I’m destined for and that was my thing going into this. I knew as soon as I was drafted I wanted to make this the brand to watch, SmackDown Live should be the one to watch and the women’s division should the one to watch. We need to me make the audience invested in the stories and I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen. That’s my goal, that’s my mission.”
The brand extension is certainly allowing more time for the company’s female talents to excel. Not only are we seeing the division fighting over a championship belt, but really for the first time there are feuds separate from those chasing the gold. We’ve already seen Becky’s issues with Natalya earlier in the summer and most recently Carmella has tried to make a name for herself in her angle with Nikki Bella. And Becky thinks it’s about time the girls were given more TV time to play with.
“It’s what we’ve always wanted. I’ve always asked; Why should there only be one women’s storyline? There’s always more than one for the guys, why not for the girls? Why is there only one women’s match on a pay-per-view? There are a lot of girls who’ve got issues with each other and we’re all fighting for something. I think it’s great, the brand extension has been great for that and it brings out that competition, it that’s rivalry that brings the best out in people - or the worst.”
Bringing out the best is what Becky has been striving to do ever since she arrived in WWE, but it could have all been so different for the ‘Irish Lass Kicker’ if it wasn’t’ for fellow countryman Finn Bàlor. The former Universal Champion, currently sidelined with injury, is the man Becky cites as the reason she is where she is today after a pep talk from the Demon in their days together at his wrestling school.
“Finn Bàlor is the reason I’m here.” Lynch says with absolute sincerity.
“I had given up wrestling for seven years, and I remember I was sitting down with him for lunch one day and I was saying I don’t know if I should go back, I love it but I just don’t know. And he said you back now because I’m not sitting with you for another ten years contemplating the same thing - it will be too late. So I actually went back shortly after and he has had a huge impact on me. They say imagine if you’ve never met that one person that changed everything for me that was Finn.”
Bàlor may have been her mentor, but it’s her opposing general manager who Becky refers to as the reason she got back into wrestling as a teenager. After the thrills and spills of watching wrestling as a kid, it was Mick Foley who drew Lynch back into watching WWE and the catalyst for her to want to do it as a profession herself.
“There were different stages of idols for me. Originally it was Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and Macho Man when I was kid. Then when I got into wrestling again during the attitude era, the reason I started watching again was Mick Foley. I just loved him, every time he cut a promo I felt so sorry for him, so I always wanted to him win and routed for him. He was the hook that got me, then I saw Lita and I thought she was the coolest thing in the world. Then when I got older even though he wasn’t in the WWE, AJ Styles was someone I loved watching. Others too like Tiger Mask, Dynamite Kid and Shawn Michaels too.”
It’s interesting to note that the vast majority of Becky’s idols were WWE’s male athletes. However, in 2016, young female fans now have Becky along with the rest of the self-proclaimed Four Horsewomen to thank for paving the way for a whole division of impressive female athletes. It’s a bond between the four of them that has seen four championship reigns - which Bayley all but certain to be the next to grab gold - and one that started from the very first days at NXT.
“We got on really well from day one. I didn’t have a clue about hair or make-up or anything like that, Sasha was the one who helped me out and took me under her wing. The three of them were so lovely when I arrived because they saw how much I loved it and how hard I worked. Charlotte from day one given the family she’s come from and her legacy, she’s been an absolute sweetheart, always so helpful. Bayley is what you see on TV, a lovely person who just absolutely loves this business. What’s that made us all bond and work well, we just love it, and we just want to make women’s wrestling the thing to watch.”
I’m sure we’ll all be watching closer than ever on both Raw and SmackDown, as the women continue to excel above and beyond what we’ve ever seen before.
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