The Forbidden Lore Of WWE's Becky Lynch

In late 2018, Becky Lynch caught fire in WWE as ‘The Man’.

The fans chose her over Charlotte Flair in the summer because Becky was her antithesis. She had an attitude. She was mouthy. She was hard done by the booking, and she could project this struggle and fury in the ring. While WWE attempted to cast her as a heel, the fans very quickly realised that there was a magnificent babyface breaking out in front of them. To WWE’s credit, and they deservedly received very little at the time, they pivoted swiftly by their standards. The machine got behind Becky Lynch, and Becky Lynch used this promotional muscle as intended, developing a nigh-on invincible strain of confidence. What many people didn’t realise is that this was her improbable second chance. She wasn’t going to blow it.

Back when wrestlers actually bothered with Twitter, Becky drove the discourse. In the last few months of 2018, she was incredible. She dominated the platform. Some chancers who fancy themselves witty tried to glom onto her numbers and cache; Corey Graves got ethered in response, and learned his lesson.

Becky’s wit was such that she achieved the rarest of 21st century feats: she made it seem as if her tension with Ronda Rousey was real, and it may well have been - but the key difference is that their interactions teemed with such animosity that you half-expected a shoot response every time they shared a TV screen. Becky made Ronda look like an absolute child on Twitter. Ronda was the perfect victim for Becky’s caustic Irish banter. Ronda took herself very seriously. She was almost entirely humourless, highly sensitive, and her very odd, verbose comebacks, unhinged rantings about “millennials”, were the sort of thing Becky could cut to the quick. In one tweet, Becky asked Ronda: “Want some avocado toast? Make you feel better”.

This was fantastic. Parents will use as few words as possible when communicating with their young kids. This patronising approach was the perfect means of getting Ronda to throw her toys out of the pram. Where did this come from?

Until this whirlwind few months, Lynch could deliver the odd cutting line, but you’d have to squint to see her true personality. In the steampunk goggles, she was almost like the women’s division’s Dean Ambrose: there was a genuinely funny comedic sensibility lurking under the surface, but the problem is that, under Vince McMahon, you were only meant to see the surface. WWE had writers from the glitzy mainstream to build the larger-than-life personalities of the Superstars and Future Hall of Famers. Becky was hilarious. Who knew?

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