10 Wrestlers Who Saved Other Wrestlers From Getting Fired
3. Dusty Rhodes Saves Becky Lynch
Sometimes a product is remembered as being so fantastic that all of it was fantastic. Wrestling fans are nice like that sometimes!
The King's Road undercards weren't anything too special. New Japan Pro Wrestling of the 2010s made idiots of the referees and was obsessed with count-out teases. Chris Kreski's WWF 2000, whisper it, blew almost every massive angle despite the week-to-week builds being so intricately entertaining.
Even the golden period of NXT - a product so fantastic that it felt surreal, as if Vince McMahon couldn't possibly actually know about it - made several blunders along the way. Vince himself might have balked at the idea of Becky Lynch making her way to the ring via Irish jig: a comically lazy and one-dimensional approach to character work.
It was a character trait so disastrous that it was impossible to take her seriously; it was laughable in and of itself, but also, it was difficult to get behind an act that creative so clearly thought of as a joke. Lynch recognised this, and was weary of her future prospects, but credits Dusty Rhodes and his unshakeable belief for saving her WWE career. He was proved right; Lynch was so undeniable that even a jaded audience lacking in trust had absolutely zero intention of letting her be Charlotte Flair's next opponent.
It was a rise as impressive as any other one can name, because that audience should have known their defiance was worthless by 2018 - but it was so loud that, as it transpires, it wasn't.