Former WWE World Champion Becky Lynch Joins Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Cast

Becky 'The Man' Lynch is switching the wrestling ring for a Starfleet bridge.

By Jack Kiely /

CBS Media Ventures / WWE

"When you’ve already been champion of the world, there’s really only one place to go next: to the stars." That's how SEVEN-time WWE World Champion Rebecca Quin, alias Becky 'The Man' Lynch, announced on Twitter earlier that she would be "beaming in" to season one of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as "not your average average Starfleet officer!"

The Academy's famous wrestling team (see a certain Jean-Luc Picard and Benjamin Sisko) can rest easy, too, it seems, as Quin will be joining the other half of the show "as part of the bridge crew". Back in May this year, Alex Kurtzman confirmed to the LA Times that Academy would take place "both [in space and on Earth]". All the talk of that 'contiguous atrium' has rather overshadowed the fact that we're probably going to get to see the innards of one or more 32nd century starships.

Quin gave no further details about her role in the announcement, so we can only speculate about the kind of character she might play. Her physicality would certainly make her the perfect Starfleet security officer, but then, the Star Trek possibilities are rather more endless. Quin, or Lynch, broke boundaries in her wrestling career as an integral part of the women's revolution in WWE. Now, she has whole new frontiers to cross, whilst still kicking arse.

Quin joins a long line of professional wrestlers to have made an appearance in Trek. WWF star Tom Magee was Ardra's impersonation of Klingon 'demon' Fek'lhr in Devil's Due. Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr., first known for playing 'Zeus' in the Hulk Hogan film No Holds Barred, was the very real (and very not tiny) Klingon Klaang in Broken Bow. Sticking with Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol performed her own kind of wrestling move in Borderland when she kicked Big Show (Paul Wight) in his big Orions.

Speaking of green, 'highest-paid-in-the-world-several-years-running' Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson famously started his acting career by starting a fight with Seven of Nine in Tsunkatse. William Shatner was even inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Class of 2020. All that practice in Arena really did pay off!

Quin's announcement — only hours old — has sparked a great deal of excitement amongst fans, particularly those already at the intersection of that Trek/wrestling Venn diagram. Elias Toufexis, of L'ak and Trek-geek fame, who also trained as a wrestler, tweeted:

Following Quin, if we're picking more pro-wrestlers to appear in the franchise, Cody Rhodes seems like the ideal next candidate. His full-on, sleeve-ripping, combadge-flipping, Seven-of-Nine-accompanied AEW All Out 2019 entrance was practically an audition tape, after all!

With WWE's popularity spiking, capitalising on Quin's presence and cross-promotion from both sides can only bring in more audience for Trek. Quin appears to be a fan herself, concluding her announcement with a time-honoured Vulcan salute and LLAP. "This HAS BEEN the most incredible experience acting alongside just a spectacular cast and crew,” Quin also noted. Starfleet Academy will likely not hit screens until late 2025 or sometime in 2026. For now, at least we know 'The Man' is boldly going!