Becky Lynch became one of WWE’s biggest stars when she stopped waiting for the company to choose her and transformed into The Man. Looking back, though, Lynch admits there are some things she said during that rise that she wishes she could take back.
Speaking on the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, Lynch explained that the frustration behind The Man wasn’t manufactured. She had spent years feeling like she would get close to becoming WWE’s chosen star, only for somebody else to get the opportunity.
“It was one of those things where it was just—I was sick of taking a backseat, and that was kind of real. That angst was real. It was like always almost getting the shot and then never being the one that was picked, never being the one that they were going to hand the ball to and say, ‘Yeah, this is our girl. Go run with it.’”
Lynch even pointed back to becoming the inaugural SmackDown Women’s Champion in 2016. According to Becky, winning that championship wasn’t originally supposed to be her moment. She believes Nikki Bella was initially meant to take the title after returning from her neck injury.
“It was like even the first time that I won the SmackDown Women’s Championship—first ever, right? That wasn’t the plan.”
The audience apparently helped change that direction. Lynch recalled fans rallying behind her once the championship opportunity was presented, with the reaction becoming difficult for WWE officials to ignore.
“I think it was meant to go to Nikki Bella, actually. Um, who, by the way, had like a badass—had just come back from her broken neck—but the audience kind of liked me, you know, and they just, once it was revealed, they just started chanting ‘Becky.’ So kind of the office had to take notice of that and go, ‘Well, yeah. All right. I guess—kind of guess we got to go with her.’”
That experience stayed with Lynch. By the time the opportunity that eventually created The Man came around, she no longer believed she could sit back and wait for WWE to hand her another chance. If she wanted to become the star she believed she could be, she was going to have to take it herself.
“But then, you know, I don’t think the plan was ever going to be to give it to me again unless I took it. And that was that opportunity of like, all right, I’m not—I’m not sitting around. I’m going to make this as interesting as I possibly can.”
That mentality helped turn Lynch into one of the hottest acts in wrestling, but she admits it also pushed her too far at times. Lynch said she did things she now regrets and acknowledged saying “a lot of mean things.” At the time, she justified those comments as part of selling whatever conflict she was involved in.
“Sometimes, you know, I did things that, to be honest with you, that I regret. I said a lot of mean things that, um—that—but, you know, it was all about selling the conflict, or at least that’s how I justified it to myself.”
For Lynch, the bigger mentality behind The Man was still simple. She was done waiting for somebody else to recognize her value. She decided she was great, and she was going to make sure everyone else knew it too.
“But that was it. It was—it was I’m not sitting around anymore. I—I am—I am great, and you—I—I am going to claim my greatness.”
That attitude ultimately changed Lynch’s entire career. The Man was built on very real frustration, but years later, Becky can also look back and admit that not everything she said while fighting for that spot needed to be said.
What do you make of Becky Lynch admitting she regrets some of the things she said during her rise as The Man? Let us know in the comments.
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