10 Modern Wrestling Moments That Gave You Chills

5. The Man Comes Around

DoN Cody Dustin
WWE

On the Survivor Series go-home edition of Monday Night RAW, Becky Lynch led an invasion on behalf of the SmackDown Women's division.

Even before the serendipitous, iconic moment that followed, this portrayed The Man as something special. She wore a SmackDown-branded t-shirt, as if brand loyalty meant anything, and yet her confidence and cool transcended the plot-hole marketing bullsh*t. Cameras caught Becky in the process of breaking Ronda Rousey's arm in a savage, sh*t-talking storm. She operated within PG guidelines, but performed with such wild intensity that she might as well have told her to go f*ck herself. The effect was one and the same; this felt like proper outlaw stuff, even if it wasn't.

And then Lynch swaggered to the ring, standing defiant in the face of danger. A mass inter-brand brawl ensued, in the midst of which Nia Jax famously, recklessly, threw a potato directly into Becky's oribital, bloodying it. The YouTube replay reframes this in black and white, and it's fitting: on the night, Becky's star power was also explicitly defined.

Sadly, this all means little now. The Wild Card Rule has ruined an angle only a megastar could salvage, and WWE is determined to lower Lynch to the disastrous level of Lacey Evans.

And yet, this moment, on re-watch, retains its hair-raising, special quality. Lynch isn't fading so much as the machine is failing her.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!