The BEST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2026)

9. 2018 | Becky Lynch Is Bloody And Defiant

WWE’s promotional push of the Charlotte Flair character was ridiculous in 2018: the first full year of Vince McMahon’s brain worms era. 

It wasn’t merely that Vince didn’t know which babyfaces to push; he had forgotten entirely how a babyface was meant to function. At SummerSlam, after being added to the Becky Lynch Vs. Carmella match, Flair won the SmackDown Women’s title by hitting Natural Selection on Becky as Becky had Carmella trapped in the Dis-Arm-Her hold. Flair was entitled in the build and opportunistic on the night, and yet, Becky’s rightful anger was framed as a heel turn. The fans steadfastly refused to accept this development. Neither did Becky, who used that indignation to take on the world as ‘The Man’. 

As a genuine overnight sensation, Becky received an ironic gift from the wrestling Gods when Nia Jax clumsily broke her face on the Survivor Series go-home Raw. 

The best babyfaces take a pounding, get back up, and ask for some more; Lynch breached the superstar realm by taking an actual punch and, with her face totally busted, striking one of the hardest poses in wrestling history. Becky’s look of pure defiance sold a main event that was six months down the line and hadn’t even been booked. WWE’s terrible plotting almost contrived to ruin the push and the match, particularly when Charlotte Flair was crowbarred into it. It didn’t matter. That scene was so great that it sold WrestleMania by itself. 

This incredible and fortuitous moment put Becky over the top as the best babyface in the company.