Becky Lynch's SummerSlam 2018 heel turn was the start of her rise to true superstardom, but it wasn't meant to be. The switch to the dark side was there to reinvigorate her, not strengthen the voice of her audience to the point where her acts of rebellion looked overdue in the face of the company's chosen few.
Months later, post-Nia Jax smashing her face in, post-"I choose you" Austin/Tyson adjacent promos with Ronda Rousey, the company was still relying audience mistrust of the brand. Still relying on "WWE" to be the heel. Apologise to Triple H, Becky. Apologise to Stephanie, Becky. Win back your opportunity from Vince, Becky.
A year later and the corporate ladder has been scaled. She's not a heel because she doesn't do bad things. But she's not a babyface because she feels in league with the same initials the audience wanted her to destroy.
WWE doesn't know what you or I want, but they know what they can get away with, and that difference is vast. But it won't bring the hundreds of thousands of viewers that have switched off over the past several years or the Network subscribers that gave it the old "No thanks" before being brought back in on a limitless freebie lately.
Booker T used to say "don't hate the player, hate the game", when he was in a WCW game he couldn't win. Mindful of the meaning, WWE replaced that catchphrase the second he arrived, but in the 19 years since purchasing their opposition, they have become 20 times more self-loathing than the Atlanta outfit ever were. We in the meantime, are tragically complicit, hopeful that our next favourite will smash the system in the way the last ones failed to.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
