10 WWE Careers That Were Transformed In One Year

4. Becky Lynch - 2018

Cm Punk 2010 11
WWE

The first quarter of Becky Lynch's 2018 was defined by two very different battle royals. She entered in a terrific performance in the outstanding inaugural Women's Royal Rumble, going over half an hour from the #2 position. Her Road To WrestleMania was non-existent after the fact though, and she was marginalised in the WrestleMania 34 pre-show multi-woman match eventually won by Naomi.

Another lost year looked in the offing until she finally worked her way into a SummerSlam Championship scrap with Carmella. The company heeled itself in some rather elegant booking by inserting as a third entrant to up the anxiety around sentimental favourite Lynch finally picking up the win, but didn't think through the next step beyond Lynch's post-match heel turn.

Luckily, they didn't need to.

The build to the triple threat match had re-cemented the audience's relationship with Lynch's relationship and they weren't prepared to let it go this time. The switch to the dark side was aborted in the face of overwhelming and amazing support, with Lynch simply embodying a more serious side without being a boring heat-seeking cowardly loser. She was 'The Man', and her ascendancy was unstoppable.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett