Becky Lynch (@beckylynchwwe) is a professional wrestler with WWE. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about becoming a Grand Slam Champion when she won the WWE NXT Championship, her thoughts on Tiffany Stratton, how becoming a mother has changed her, what Seth Rollins is like as a dad, the defining moment when she became ‘The Man’, working with The Rock when he returned to WWE in 2019, her recent steel cage match with Trish Stratus, how Mick Foley inspired her to become a wrestler, her “shameful” WWE debut, her advice for younger talent, the ‘Big Time Becks’ wardrobe and much more!
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Quote I’m thinking about:
In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety. — Abraham Maslow
How has becoming a mom changed you?
“Gosh, it makes me worried about everything, but also grateful for everything. You know, like there is just this extra bit of gratitude around everything. I think when you see how much they progress over [time]. We went to a live event yesterday, I came home this morning, and she was different. She had learned more. She was telling me that a dinosaur was a dimetrodon, I didn’t know what a frickin dimetrodon was. And so you realise, like the time that passes, and how you have to be grateful for every moment to be very present and enjoy all of it. And then that also applies to this, to what we’re doing here. You know, because of our schedule, because of how crazy it is, we’re on the road 52 weeks a year, there’s no breaks, nobody’s going on vacations. Unless you roam and raise chicken. Then you just get into the grind, what’s next and you never really appreciate what’s in front of you and what you have. But when you have a little baby and she’s just magic and every day, she’s coming out with these magical phrases, and she’s doing different things and she learning and then it’s just, you just realise just how quickly life moves and you just have to take stock of everything that you have. And you have to be very, very grateful for it.”
Isn’t it so funny that I’m a little bit behind you. So my daughter is about to be four months old. Isn’t it funny that at what right before the baby’s born, everyone’s like, enjoy this, like enjoy it, because they’re never gonna be this young again. And you’re like, yeah, it’s great advice. And it is but there’s not much you can do to like, you know, actually enjoy it. Because the moment just, you know, passes all the time.
“Yeah, I think that’s one of those things where people say that to you, right? Like they say, enjoy it. And you’re like, okay, is this it? Am I enjoying it right? I remember, and this is totally different, but when I main evented WrestleMania. And everybody was like, enjoy it, enjoy it, soak it all in. And I remember standing there with titles going, am I enjoying it? Am I soaking it in enough? You know? Like, because what does that mean? I think it just means letting all the chatter dissipate and just appreciating what it is. And I think when you’re sleep deprived the four months and the house is chaos, and you know, you haven’t had a hot meal in a long time you go okay, what the hell. But I think it’s just, like, knowing that all of those things are gonna fall away and you just get to stare at this cute little baby doing cute little weird things with their hands. The cute little weird things they do with their hands, you know?”
Was there a moment before Wrestlemania 35 where it hit you like, oh my gosh, we’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna make history? And at the end of this, I’m gonna be the one standing there with my arm raised.
“Yeah, I think several times. I think the week before, I was like, oh no, oh, gosh, oh, I like the gravity of what we were about to do like, what it meant, what it meant for the business what it meant, you know, just culturally and the fact that this predominantly male-dominated industry was now for the first time being main evented by three women and that I was going to be the one standing at the end holding two titles. Like am I ready for this? What preparation needs to be done? Did I do it or not? You know, all of these things go through your head. But then I remember when the day came just rocking up to the building like walking past Undertaker going yeah, this is my WrestleMania. So I do think I really tried to enjoy it as much as I could on the day. Though when it came to like midnight, and we were about to go out, the nerves then hit.”
And now you’re the NXT Women’s Champion. I’m curious about what it means to have that narrative there. What does it mean to have that championship now versus the other times that you’ve had it?
“Well, I never had this. Do you mean just championships in general?”
Yeah. Like, what does this one mean?
“So look, it is the one that got away, it is the one that I was never pegged for when I was coming up to NXT. And I was very close to being fired constantly, constantly. And not like one of those things where I was unjustly on the brink of being fired like I probably deserved to. I sucked, it wasn’t very good. But because I was so in my head, I just had left wrestling for several years. I don’t know if anybody knows my story. But, when I was a teenager, young, started at 15. I left home to move over to Canada when I was 18. I was like making waves all over the independent circuit. And then I stopped wrestling at 19. And I got very lost and it got very lost for many years. I always felt like I had this thing, but it couldn’t go back to when I didn’t know how to get back to it and it was scary. I didn’t know what women’s wrestling looked like because it didn’t look like it does now and there was nobody just showing me that it could look like it does now. And so anyway, when I got to NXT I was like, Oh no, this is it. I’ve got it. But it was like holding a flower, you know like I was like suffocating it because I wanted it so badly. So nobody, nobody, ever thought I was going to win the NXT Women’s Championship. Nobody probably thought I was going to ever win any championships they thought I was probably just going to be there and be a fine little hand. Enthusiastic little hand that I was. And so going back, you know, all these years later, in a way feels like vindication. But the other thing is that it’s more than that it’s more than the past. And the righting of the wrongs that I felt done to me in the past, which weren’t even wrongs done to me, it was just, it was other people’s time. And I’m so very grateful that I was never pegged for this, I’m so very grateful that I was never one of the people that they strapped the rocket to and said this is going to be our girl. I’m very grateful that I have to strive and work and grind and push myself and bring myself out of the dirt because one, I feel like it’s given me a connection with the audience, two, it’s always left a chip on my shoulder. And three, it brings it all back to what is the love? What is the love of this? Is the love of this just the gratification that I get? Or is the love the business? And how I can make the business better? And what do I do every day in the ring? And so with that, bringing it all the way back, winning this, it’s bringing the future with me, you know, it’s going down there, it’s seeing who they have. Who wants this? Who is hungry and who wants to main event WrestleMania because I can’t make history on my own. So let’s frickin do this. Let’s make it the coolest thing. But you’re gonna have to bring an edge out of you to do it, because I ain’t giving this up easy. You know, I ain’t given this up easy, I want to push people. I want to push them to their limits. I want to see what they’re made of and see who’s hungry enough because the person that’s going to take this from me has to be hungry.”
Tiffany Stratton seems pretty hungry. And I guess we’ll find out you know, it’s you guys against each other at No Mercy. I guess we’ll see what happens.
“We’ll see what happens. But now look, Tiffany is one of those people that has got a rocket strapped to her, right? She’s one of those people who comes in and looks a million bucks and can do everything under the sun. She can flip she can lift, she’s strong. She’s got a character, we hate her, she’s got everything. She’s got everything. How much do you love it? What do you have in here? Because that’s what matters. And it’s a thing that the audience picks up on. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got all the tools in the box, if you’ve got all the right, they pick up on something. And that’s an energy that is a love for this. That is being a student of the game. And so I think Tiffany has everything that it takes to be to be a Superstar. But it comes down to what’s in your heart, you know, and so that’s what I wanted. That’s what I want to do. I want to push her. I want to see how extreme she’s willing to go. Like, how much can she take and keep coming back? That’s what an Extreme Rules match is, you know?”
Very few superstars get that defining moment. And you had that defining moment when you know, became The Man and I think that some other ones that immediately popped into my head are like, the Austin 3:16 promo or Hulk Hogan slamming Andre at WrestleMania 3. At what point did you realise you know, you’re standing in there that the nose is broken, you’re posing? At what point do you realise? Oh, my gosh, this is the moment.
“Oh no I didn’t have a clue what was going on really. I was so concussed out of my mind. I had no idea where I was. I walked back through those doors. I said, Where are we? How did we get here? I didn’t have a clue. Like I had enough wherewithal to be like cameras still on me enjoy this moment. The crowd is going wild. This is cool. Like I knew I had blood coming down my face just didn’t really care. I didn’t think of it as, Oh, this is a cool moment. I was just like, oh yeah, we’re doing the thing the crowd is going wild, this is awesome. You know, this is awesome. And I think it wasn’t till the following days, that people really started to celebrate. But really, it’s crazy. When people think about us, like that was the defining moment. Because I really kind of think that it was the slap that was the defining moment for me, that was what brought my character into this metamorphosis. And really, it was the blood on the face. That was like the crescendo. But up until that point, I was just having a blast, I was having the time of my life, because it was booked like the bad guy. But I was a good guy. So I could do no wrong. And that is the most beautiful place to be in this business, you know, where you can just do no wrong. So you’re just having a blast. And after that then I was a babyface and then ended up hobbling my way to WrestleMania. And kind of as great as that ultimate moment was there were more struggles on the back end of that nose being broken than there were before it if that makes sense.”
The Man, though, is a great nickname. Like you took it and you ran with it. And you made a great shirt that everybody bought. I don’t know if you realised you had lightning in a bottle when you created The Man.
“I think I did. Yeah, yeah, you could feel it like you could sense that upswell around it like okay, this is cool. This is a movement almost you know, people are getting behind this and so it’s very cool. Very cool.”
You know what people got behind? This steel cage match with you and Trish Stratus. This was something really special at Payback.
“Yeah, we crushed it we stole the damn show, started it off, it was all downhill from there. No, it wasn’t, it was actually a great, great show. But we started off hot, I think like a few chips on our shoulder story had been going on for a long time, maybe not getting the steam that necessarily we wanted, and being left off SummerSlam obviously, I understand why these decisions are made, but really wanted to go out there and prove it and getting that time, getting that steel cage match was the perfect way to finish it. You know, match of our life.”
I mean, seriously it might be?
“Yeah, so I mean, look, when you have a legend like Trish Stratus come on back. Like you want to remind the people of why this person was so great. And I think there’s no doubt after that match of the greatness.”
It’s so interesting when you go back and you watch your WWE debut to like the contrast between who that person was and who this person is that is sitting across from me.
“Are we talking about the Irish jig? We talking about the Irish Jig.”
Yeah and that very green attire that you had.
“Yeah, there we are. Look, if that is not proof that you can dig yourself out of any hole, then I don’t know what is. Because that is, I would put that over Shockmaster in terms of shameful debuts. Yeah Like he just fell over, you know, like he fell over. Okay, fine, that sucks. I went out. I was committed to that, you know like that was my, I think the difference is he didn’t intend to fall over. I intended to go out there and do an Irish jig like that. And thought that I was worthy of being on WWE television. That happened.”
But here’s the thing. How do you get out of that? Because there are a lot of superstars that debut as one character, and then they’re stuck is that and they can’t make it work?
“I think there’s always a catalyst for change, right? You just got to figure out, you just got to figure out what it is. Winning a match can be a catalyst for change, losing a match can be a catalyst for change. You just sometimes need the right story, the right antagonist or protagonists, depending on what way you’re going to go. But I think that’s the fun thing about wrestling, man, we can do anything. You can go from being a stupid, silly Irish dancing clown, to being The Man of the business and main eventing WrestleMania, holding two titles over your head, you know, and that’s the thing. I suppose in a way, that’s the thing about life, right? You don’t have to be stuck as the person that you were or with the thing that you did, you can move on. And you can learn from your mistakes and hope you never go back there. And I hope I never go back in my green attire and doing the Irish dances. I don’t even listen to Irish music anymore. That’s a lie, I love it. I rock it with the gym, it’s very good.”
That championship that you have there. I feel like that was kind of the last thing that you had on like the bucket list to cross off. Now you’ve won it, what could you possibly have that you need to accomplish now in your career?
“Gosh, that’s kind of one of those questions that I do get asked fairly regularly. And it’s a nice point where you can say, Yeah, I want to main event Wrestlemania again, I want to do this again, I want to do that. Again, I want to do this, I would like to win the Elimination Chamber, you know, like, I want to win Money in the Bank. And but really comes down to cementing the legacy. And how do I make every match that I have great? How do I elevate the women in NXT? How do I push the business forward? How do I leave it better than I found it and I already feel like, I’ve left it better than I found it. But I want to continue that, I want to keep pushing that. I want to make myself proud, my daughter proud, my family proud and the audience proud. I want them to enjoy watching me I want them to go what’s next and be invested in the matches that I’m having the people that I’m wrestling. So I suppose that it, it comes down to consistency and the love of the business. I just love this. I just love this, I love going out there love going out there in front of the crowd. And given them given them all that I have put my body on the line put my mind on the line, taking risks. I think it’s more right now it’s more of just the love of the game, then what else do you have to accomplish? I’ve been lucky enough to accomplish many things. And there’s probably many more things that I will accomplish. But I just love this. How do I make this better?”
Yeah, I love that. And you mentioned your daughter and when you’re her mom, when Seth Rollins is her dad. I mean, what kind of superstar do we have on the way here in like 18 to 20 years?
“Oh man she has so much more charisma than both of us combined. She is electric she is magical and magnetic. She is amazing, I’m so proud of her, she’s just such a great little girl. She’s so funny. And she’s so smart and she’s so sweet and she’s so decisive. And yeah, she’s brilliant. And if she wants to do this, then well, we’ll train her up well, and we’ll make sure that she’s the best in the world at this. But I don’t know, currently, she doesn’t really like watching. Yeah, it’s too loud.”
What is she watching instead? Like Blippi or something?
“Yeah. Blippi, Ms Rachel. Anything dinosaurs.”
We watch a lot of Miss Rachel in this house
“I love Ms Rachel. I invited her to to Madison Square Garden Show one time. She didn’t come. Ms Rachel if you watching that invite is open anytime you want. You don’t even have to come in full costume. No, she’s great. I love her. She taught Roux so much.”
I don’t think people can picture Seth Rollins being a father though.
“So he’s the best. He is so good. He’s so patient. And so kind, like, he never loses his temper, she respects him, she respects him a bit more than she respects me. You know, like, I try to lay down the law but I’m a softy, you know, but like he’s so good. He is so good. They’re the best. They’re the best of buds.”
So we saw The Rock come back on SmackDown not long ago. And when you think about it, the last time The Rock was in a WWE ring. It was four years ago, it was with you and Baron Corbin. Take us backstage before you guys went out for that segment. Walk us through how everything went with The Rock.
“I mean, look, when you’re working with Dwayne, it’s, well, one, it’s so easy because anything you do gets a reaction and he’s so good. And he’s so in tune with with the energy of everyone, the entire universe, I think you can see that by how he’s just, you know, taken over the world. But he also makes everybody feel so comfortable. And he wants everything to be the best. And he takes care of everybody that’s around him. But also then you are just so wracked with nerves because you’re going toe to toe with The Great One. He’s The Great One who’s got, you know, more charisma in is Pinky than, I mean, him and Roux could compete maybe, yeah. But it is like a bit of a nerve-wracking experience because you want to hold your own and you have to hold your own. Because he’s giving you the torch, he is saying, Here you go. Let me give you the rub, kid. And no, he really looked after all of us, getting to work with him and being out there and feeling the energy of the crowd. And then you go, that’s what I want. I want people to react to me that way. And that’s a very cool thing. Because you get to experience it and you go, Okay, I knew I was hot. This is a different level of hot. How do I get this level of hot?”
Yeah, there’s an interesting thing when The Rock comes out there’s a pop for his music. And then there’s a bigger pop when he actually walks out and people like Oh, my God, he is here.
“Yeah, and to be able to experience that while you’re in the ring, about to work with him. Wild energy and I’m very privileged I got to do it.”
You’ve gotten to this interesting point of your career where you’re now working with people who I’m sure are saying, You’re the reason I’m doing this or I grew up watching you. What’s the advice that you have when you work with some younger talent?
“I suppose there’s many different advices, it depends on what the question is. But I think it’s kind of bring it down to fundamentals and always think about the long game, and the purpose, and the crowd, and what it is that we do, what are we selling? Where are we selling them stories, we’re selling conflict. How do we make them care? How do I make them care about me beyond the superficial things? How do I get them to care about the person that I am? And then of course, there is the thing of TV time and okay, I’m not getting as much TV time as don’t want that. Or I’m not winning as many matches as I want that. How can I make this work for me? Well, the thing is, you can always make it work for you, no matter what it is, whether you’re getting time or you’re not getting time, and it’s harder when you’re not getting time, but there are things that you can do. And I was always told by William Regal, that when you’re not on the show, you go and you find the digital team, and you tell a story or you do something, and that was what I did in my early career that really endeared me to the audience. I think that was always my secret ingredient. Whether I was doing silly Instagram posts or I was finding a backstage interviewers so that I could cut a promo that I wasn’t getting time to put on TV. So then there is some contingent of the audience that watches this that knows who I am. When they started hearing my message. And then they will get behind you. And I think that is kind of one of those secret ingredients that you could sit around and be annoyed, or you could take matters into your own hands and tell a story. I think my dad used to always just tell me that when I was bored, you know, just tell yourself a story. And I think William Regal was kind of telling me the same thing. It’s always been the same thing, tell yourself a story. But now it’s not yourself, it’s tell the audience that story.”
Who was it for you who got you into pro wrestling?
“Mick Foley told me a story, man, his promos. Yeah, so like I remember being a fan when I was a kid you know, Hulkamania, Warrior all that kind of jazz, dressing up in my mom’s clothes and wrestling with my brother on her bed. But I fell out of watching it I think mostly because my brother fell out of watching and then he started watching again in the Attitude Era. And I’d come along when he was watching it. And I was one of those. I was the worst. I was like, oh, no, you know, that’s so fake, that for babies. And [he said] no, no, just it’s gotten really good. Yeah, sure, whatever. But then Mick would come on and would be like the way he talked you know, and the stories he would tell and this underdog that he was in this unlikely superstar that he was. I was a bit of a misfit as a kid non a bit of a misfit, very much a misfit. And I could see myself in him like there was just that relationship that rapport of like, No, you’re not the picture-perfect superstar. And so he became my hero. You know, I really wanted him to win and then he had that match with Triple H where he was going to retire if he lost and I remember staying up late watching it on him lose and me just being in floods of tears. And of course, he came back like four weeks later, whatever. But, that was really what hooked me and then I was there to stay you know? And then I saw Lita and she was so cool when I wanted to be like her and then everybody else. I mean it was just such a hot time in the business. But I just fell in love with it.”
Do you have a favorite Mick Foley match?
“Probably, I mean, maybe it’s Triple H and Mick Foley and the Hell in a Cell just for that nostalgic reason, you know?”
Yeah, it was so good. I think everyone points to the Undertaker and Mick Foley. I mean that that was his defining moment for sure.
“His defining moment but I think for me as a fan to get to the point where I was crying over and over over this man losing was a defining moment in my fandom.”
The match he had with Randy Orton where we kind of went, Oh, Randy Orton will do this stuff.
“Oh, Randy, what a legend. What a legend that man is.”
You’re working with a lot of legends right now.
“I Am. We’re in a great time in the business. Very great time at the business. Everybody’s hitting, everybody’s taking off. The fans are excited, the buildings are sold out. There’s an energy around the places. It’s a very, very cool thing to be a part of.”
I feel like the way that our generation talks about the Attitude Era. I feel like there’s gonna be another generation that talks about exactly what is happening right now.
“Damn right they will and they will talk about the greatest NXT Women’s Champion.”
What’s it like going through TSA with that?
“Yeah, they stop you all the time. Take it out of your bag, and I’m always late for flights.”
Big Time Becks might be one of the best catchphrases or nicknames.
“I had so much fun with that run. I want to bring it back.”
Your wardrobe, and I mean this with great love and great respect. your wardrobe is atrociously over the top.
“I love it, man. I love it. I will say it’s kind of my real-life wardrobe. You know what I mean? Like there is I love a bit of Peacocking, you know, walking down the streets of Los Angeles.”
I don’t know who has a better wardrobe. Is it you? Or is it Seth?
“It’s Seth, I can’t argue with that. Like I have a, you know, like, I want to recycle all of his clothes. I just want to have them all tailored to fit me. Yeah, then they get to be worn again. We all get to relive these amazing looks that he’s been churning out. He came in dressed like a fire hydrant just a second ago to deliver me some delicious coffee.”
When you look back at everything you’ve done, the matches, and the championships and everything. What in your career are you most proud of?
“I don’t know that there’s any one thing that I’m most proud of, I think I’m most proud of many things. I think what I’m most proud of right now is being able to balance everything. Being able to balance being a very present mother and wife, and being on every single show that we have. I was on a SmackDown dark match on Friday, I was on the live events, you know, I’m on NXT, I’m on Raw. I think I’ll just be most proud of elevating where the women were to where they are now. And just that I’ve never once phoned it in. Like, I think you can accuse me of several things, nobody will ever be able to accuse me of phoning it in of not trying my hardest, not doing my best. Oftentimes I won’t hit the mark, I won’t get to where I want to be. But I’m always trying to do my best. I’m always trying to bring the best out of everybody that is in the ring with me. I’m trying to do the best for the audience. And as long as I continue to do that, which there ain’t no sign of that stopping. And I think I’m going to leave behind a career that I am extremely proud of.”
So the last question I want to ask you, I end every interview with this. You’ve mentioned it a few times, gratitude is such an important thing. What are three things in your life that you’re grateful for as we sit here right now?
“Oh my gosh, I mean, my daughter, my husband, my job, they’re the first three that come to mind. But there are just so many things that I’m grateful for, and I’m very lucky to be so grateful for.”
Featured image: WWE
