Over the Meadow and Through the Woods: Becky Lynch’s Road to WrestleMania
Generally speaking, the road to WrestleMania starts at the Royal Rumble. The winner of the Royal Rumble goes to usually main event the show of shows with a title shot. In recent years, while the winner has not automatically main evented WrestleMania, they have still gotten their title shot. Challenging the champion of your choosing is the prize for winning the Rumble. It’s automatic…right? Let’s discuss.
The Rumble winners for this year were Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. Rollins entered the Rumble at #10 and won by last eliminating Braun Strowman with a curb stomp. Lynch was not originally in the Rumble as she had a title match against Smackdown Women’s Champion Asuka. She actually took Lana’s spot as the Ravishing Russian had been injured during the United States Championship match on the pre-show. Finlay made the call to allow her to compete and she won the Rumble by last eliminating Charlotte. In the following weeks, Rollins challenged Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship and Lynch challenged Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship.
And this is where their paths diverged.
During the Royal Rumble match, Lynch had seemingly injured her knee. We didn’t think much of it; minor injuries happen all the time in wrestling and at most, she might’ve had to wear a knee brace. But then the injury angle started getting played up and she was suspended for not going to see the doctor. And this is about where Lynch’s road to WrestleMania started getting wild. After being suspended for not going to see the doctor, she was replaced in the match by Charlotte Flair. This led to a lot of back and forth between Flair and Lynch. Lych had her suspension lifted but was then suspended again for attacking Stephanie McMahon. Ronda Rousey got involved, lobbying for Lynch to be allowed to compete in the match. This all culminated in a match at Fast Lane, in which Lynch had to win back her spot in the title match…the title match she had already earned by winning the Royal Rumble.
Becky Lynch’s road to WrestleMania involved selling a knee injury with ill-fitting crutches for several weeks, a social media war with Ronda Rousey, being suspended twice, being replaced, and having her title match turn into a triple threat. By comparison, Seth Rollins’ road to WrestleMania has been much easier. He was allowed to rest from his back injury and was later involved in Roman Reigns’ return and the Shield’s last match together at Fast Lane. Even with Reigns’ return and the Shield finale, his title match against Brock Lesnar was never in jeopardy. He earned the match by winning the Royal Rumble and thus far, it really hasn’t been questioned. Why then, did Becky Lynch have to go around her butt to get to her elbow?
Different fans have different opinions as to why Lynch’s road to WrestleMania has been as tumultuous as it has. Personally, I think the suspensions and injury angle were done as somewhat of a swerve. After news broke of Ronda Rousey’s potential departure from WWE after WrestleMania, many of us in the wrestling community simply assumed Lynch would beat her, especially with how over The Man currently is. Making it seem that Lynch would not be able to compete, either due to her injury or her suspensions, was a way to generate a little more heat for the title match she was owed as the winner of the women’s Rumble. This oddly convoluted angle also opened up the opportunity to add Charlotte Flair into the match, which may or may not have always been the plan. I think Flair has been a great addition to the feud, mostly due to way she is a catalyst for the original feud between Lynch and Rousey.
While his has definitely been one of the more long-winded ways of getting to a WreslteMania match, I think the amount of setbacks and obstacles has ultimately generated a lot more buzz for the triple threat as well as bolstered Lynch’s babyface standing amongst the WWE Universe. Flair is fantastic at garnering heel heat and Rousey’s recent turn and current “idgaf” attitude make a whole lot more sense than her babyface character.
WrestleMania is a little over two weeks so there’s still time to throw more fire into this feud. This triple threat match has not only the potential to be one of the greatest women’s matches of all time, but the potential to be the first-ever women’s match to main event WrestleMania. Getting here may have been exhausting, and even confusing at times, but hopefully the payoff is well worth it.
-Wynter
