Becky Lynch has been doing her best to elevate the talent around her over the past year, and some fans apparently have a problem with it.
Bryan Danielson once said it best: WWE fans — not all of them, but many — are fickle. Fickle with a major emphasis on the first letter of the word.
Becky Lynch, the greatest female superstar in the history of WWE, is no longer the Women’s Intercontinental Champion. The Man lost her title to AJ Lee this past Saturday night at Elimination Chamber, marking her third consecutive submission loss to the previously retired former Divas Champion.
As she’s been prone to do as of late, Lynch immediately took to social media after the show for a good crash-out session. She once again blamed referee Jessika Carr for her loss and called for her immediate suspension for her allegedly biased officiating. A request that was promptly denied by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce.
While Carr did stop Lynch from utilizing an exposed turnbuckle during the match, it was Becky who removed the padding in the first place. So when she went crashing face-first into the steel moments later, The Man really had no one to blame for the mishap other than herself.
The fact that Lynch felt the need to stoop to nefarious tactics in order to defeat a woman wrestling in her first singles match in over a decade, even someone as talented as AJ Lee, is just a microcosm of where her character is at mentally now that she’s in the later stages of her career.
She can proudly boast about The Takedown on SI, Bleacher Report, and any other publication naming her the greatest of all-time as much as she wants, but as the losses pile up, her once impenetrable psyche is going to continue to erode from the crashing waves of self-doubt. Her mental breakdowns will become more erratic and extreme.
Behind the scenes, however, Rebecca Quin is in complete control. She knows exactly what she’s doing and she’s an invaluable asset to the WWE creative team.
Lynch returned to the company at WrestleMania 41 after taking a nearly year-long hiatus from professional wrestling. Severe burnout and a touch of mother’s guilt were cited as the main reasons she decided to step away, but she also had a rocky relationship with the WWE Universe around the time that her contract expired.
Due to her constant presence in the main event scene, The Man was often compared to the late Hulk Hogan. Suggestions were made that she was using her star power and status within the company to win matches and championships, and to stunt the ascension of other women in the locker room. This despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
She put over Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania XL and Liv Morgan at King and Queen of the Ring before leaving for what she thought was going to be a summer-long break.