Becky Lynch: Not #NextWorldChamp, But Should Be

The nature of professional wrestling dictates that not everybody that deserves to be on top will be. For there to be winners, there have to be losers. Sometimes those losers will be people that the fans appreciate. We’ll get frustrated over their lack of success & hope that things eventually turn around.

It might be a little harsh to refer to Becky Lynch as a “loser”. It’s true that she didn’t fare well in her feud with Alexa Bliss at the end of 2016. She lost the SmackDown Women’s Championship to Alexa Bliss in a tables match & lost several rematches. Afterwards, she was nowhere near the championship. She sat in the shadows while Naomi took her place as SmackDown’s top female babyface.

Becky got knocked down another notch when Charlotte Flair moved to the brand in April 2017. Personally, it was great for Becky to have her best friend on the road with her. Professionally, Becky was sent into Charlotte’s shadow. While Charlotte was getting all the opportunities, Becky was moved into secondary feuds & mostly appeared on television in tag matches with Charlotte & Naomi. Occasionally she’d get to do something cool like beat up James Ellsworth, but the title matches were reserved for Charlotte.

After taking some time off to film another installment of The Marine, Becky returned & continued her winning ways. WWE continued not noticing…until recently.

I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, but Charlotte & Asuka both came up short against Carmella twice. The Princess of Staten Island has laid her top competition to waste without too much of an effort. With Charlotte & Asuka out of Carmella’s hair, somebody needed to step up & challenge her. Becky finally had her opportunity, and she took advantage of it by earning a title opportunity at SummerSlam. It was to be her first one on one match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship since February 2017.

Until Charlotte Flair re-emerged on the scene.

To be fair, Charlotte was merely coming to the assistance of her best friend. Becky was about to eat a DDT on a chair, so she was lucky that Charlotte just came back from her surgical procedure. We all knew was was coming next though. Paige, SmackDown General Manager & somebody that doesn’t seem to be a big fan of Carmella’s, would be happy to get Charlotte in the title picture as another way to get the championship to somebody else.

And, let’s face it, WWE likes to get as many people on a SummerSlam card as possible. This typically results in a ton of multi-man & multi-woman matches. Adding Charlotte & making it a triple threat match makes perfect sense. Even though most of us Becky Lynch fans can channel Samoa Joe with our reactions to the situation.

pic.twitter.com/C0eo3JTD0z

— Smackdown Womens Champion (@CarmellaWWE) August 1, 2018

The booking plays into a problem a lot of people are noticing when it comes to Charlotte. People like to complain about Roman Reigns being booked strongly. He really isn’t, but for the sake of the comparison let’s act like he is. One wonders if the same people continually harping on that talking point notice Charlotte’s treatment. Prior to losing to Carmella twice, Charlotte went through a stretch where she was booked stronger than pretty much any woman in the history of the universe. There was a lumberjack match at Clash of Champions where Charlotte got beaten up by ten people on the outside of the ring repeatedly & still beat Natalya without a problem. That seemed more ridiculous to me than when she ended Asuka’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania.

Becky Lynch’s character is largely based on the fact that she isn’t supposed to be a champion. Most of us wrestling fans can relate to that. We feel like the deck is stacked against us, just like it was against Becky. How many girls from Ireland have been wrestling champions? Not many. Hell, it was tough for Fit Finlay to get a title over here, and he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s tougher for us to relate to the daughter of a wrestling legend that’s become a favorite of the WWE brass.

Charlotte busted her ass to get where she is right now. Let’s not get that twisted. However, the perception among most of the unwashed masses is that she’s there because her dad was the Nature Boy, and Triple H & the rest of the people backstage loved him so they love her too. Perception is reality. Her horning in on this title match makes us all believe that Becky is bound to get screwed over.

Which would be fine. As long as the SmackDown Women’s Championship Match at WWE Evolution is Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch. My dream scenario has Charlotte as the Ric Flair to Becky Lynch’s Sting. I fear that WWE wants Becky to turn heel due to Charlotte entering into her match, but I think it’s obvious to most people that Charlotte works best as a heel & Becky works best as a face. So SummerSlam’s match will likely end up with Becky taking Carmella out & Charlotte taking Becky out to get the win.

Which would be fine. If we want to wait until Evolution for Becky to get the championship that she deserves. Unfortunately, we’re not patient people. We would like Becky to get the championship as soon as possible.

She won’t. But there’s a very, very slight chance she will, so we’ll keep watching.