10 Wrestling Nightmares That Almost Came True

10. Becky Lynch Almost Retired For Good

Becky Lynch's rise to the pinnacle of pro wrestling under the guise of 'The Man' didn't feel revelatory to the ultra-hardcores who followed the early phase of her career.

She was always a very witty and charismatic performer. She was an in-ring prodigy too. She was entirely ahead of her time, which is usually a good thing, but Becky pioneered an act that had no place in the mainstream at said time. It's not as if she was on the cusp of something, either. It took more than half a decade for western women's wrestling to catch up.

Watch her operate as pre-WWE Rebecca Knox here. Her ability to read and then immediately own the room is outstanding. There's genuinely a Rock-esque balance between charm and obnoxiousness in that promo, an irresistible love-to-hate blend.

She suffered a serious head injury in 2006 and all but retired from wrestling. While she made three cameo returns during a seven-year hiatus, she resisted the lure of returning full-time because the business remained in a woeful, misogynistic state. If the American indie scene didn't make steady, patient strides that hinted at actual, transformative change, wrestling fans may have been deprived of one of WWE's better characters in the modern era.

Hers is a very inspirational story that WWE can't actually market: "Becky rose above the adversity - that was entirely our doing! - to one day make it".