10 Wrestlers Who Gambled On A New Character
3. Becky Lynch: Big Time Becks
Abandoning 'The Man' character wasn't quite as senseless as it might have seemed at first.
Then again, the grimness of the pandemic probably erased the reality: after a stunning, super-confident run in late 2018, the magic had faded. WrestleMania 35 was a disaster that people were too physically exhausted to comprehend as a disaster. Everything was uneven at best from there; the Lacey Evans feud was such a poor, overlong downgrade that even a great Hell In A Cell match opposite Sasha Banks couldn't feel special. By the time Lynch decided to have a child, she'd turned into a sub-Conor McGregor cartoon with hack prop gimmicks.
Upon her return, she transformed into "Big Time Becks": a standard-bearer persona who had lost herself in her own hype to such an extent that she is willing to cheat to preserve her spot.
Has it worked?
The difference in crowd reactions and buzz between now and 2018 suggest that, no, it hasn't. Lynch's delivery remains brilliant, when she isn't ac-ting too obviously. Her "haunted" promo on Lita was very much a low point. It felt more like an audition for another enterprise entirely, and not a successful one.
They tried. They have failed. This, simply, isn't as big as it was a few years ago.