Why the WWE world is enthralled with Becky Lynch, a women's wrestler known as 'The Man'
- Becky Lynch, a tough-talking Irishwoman with a steampunk dress sense, has steamrolled her way through WWE opponents and into the hearts of fans.
- She became a double champion at WrestleMania 35 on Sunday, April 7, just months after winning the 2019 Royal Rumble event.
- She made history alongside Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey, who were the first women to headline WWE's signature event of the year.
- The WWE world is already enthralled by Lynch, and in the months ahead her popularity could get catapulted even further.
Becky Lynch is the most electrifying woman in sports entertainment today.
In the space of one year, Lynch has gone from fringe wrestler to elite competitor and is now one of the WWE's most successful and wildly popular superstars.
With her distinctive red hair, steampunk outfits, and knee-high leather boots, it is clear Lynch is unconventional by nature.
But she wasn't always this well known. The 32-year-old, real name Rebecca Quin, has been wrestling for almost two decades, making her start in professional wrestling at 15 years old.
Her first ring name was Rebecca Knox and she competed across Ireland, Europe, and North America as an independent wrestler, before signing with Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling and winning the SuperGirls Championship in 2005. The next year, though, she suffered a severe head injury during an overseas match in Germany which was seen as "possibly career threatening" at the time, according to the SuperGirls website.
She did not return to wrestling for six years, but eventually signed with WWE in 2013. Over the subsequent years she ditched the Quin and Knox names, and became known as Becky Lynch — the outlandish wrestler you see before you today.
This reinvention — the dress sense, the brash talk, and her signature suplex moves — is well-fitted to her confrontational personality.
In November 2018, backstage security had to order Lynch off of Ronda Rousey for fear she was about to break her bones with a reverse armbar.
—WWE (@WWE) November 13, 2018If that wasn't audacious enough, moments later she walked out of the ring to confront seven of her enemies, engaged them in a brawl, and had to leave the show with a bloodied smile in what is now regarded as one of the most iconic moments in modern WWE.
This fearless nature has led people to compare her to former WWE hardman "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and current UFC lightweight Conor McGregor, who she's tweeted at. She even told McGregor she could break his arm in "three short seconds" before drinking his Proper no. Twelve whiskey.
But make no mistake. Lynch is not a reboot, or a copycat. She is not the next "Texas Rattlesnake," or the new "Notorious." Lynch, as she will tell you herself, is "The Man," a self-given moniker that she says is empowering as it commands the attention of the female and the male locker rooms.
"After decades of (awesome) men being 'The Man,' what's more empowering than saying to both female and male locker rooms, 'I am The Man now, what are you going to do about it?' Because make no mistake, that's what I am," she said in a viral tweet last year.
—The Man (@BeckyLynchWWE) November 25, 2018Lynch's social media game is as strong as the promos she delivers in the middle of live events. The tough-talking Irishwoman has mic skills that rival the best speakers in WWE history.
The Rock and Hulk Hogan, two entertainers that even non-wrestling fans all know about, were not necessarily the best in-ring performers, but they possessed a key quality that no face of the company can do without — charisma, which is something Lynch has in abundance.
When "The Man" walks into a room, she commands the attention of everybody in it, regardless of whether that's backstage with hardly anybody there, or in a jam-packed arena with 82,265 people desperately waiting to hear her speak.
That is how many people attended the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to watch WrestleMania 35, the biggest event in the WWE calendar on Sunday, April 7.
As Lynch was the last woman standing at the 2019 Royal Rumble she competed against Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a winner takes all triple threat match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship and the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship titles.
Of course, there was only going to be one winner, and that was Lynch, who pinned Rousey by countering her "Piper Pit" move into a crucifix finisher in the 23rd minute, while Flair was outside of the ring.
Watch a highlight from Lynch's WrestleMania 35 win right here:
Speaking to WWE, a teary-eyed Lynch said: "Anything is possible."
She added: "It's hard to put into words how I'm feeling right now, it's so overwhelming. I've worked for this my entire life, dreamed about this, obsessed about this moment. And never knew how I was going to feel. I can't comprehend it.
"I've achieved all my dreams in front of 80,000 people supporting me. And it's only beginning."
Make no mistake — Lynch is now a household name and has fame that has transcended wrestling and impacted the mainstream sporting press. She's huge, and will only get bigger.
Read more: Reports suggest Ronda Rousey will leave WWE for good after WrestleMania 35
But Lynch, unconventional by name and by nature, is still at the start of her career in sports entertainment. And something tells us she will be at the top for a long time yet.
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