The Becky Lynch Heel Turn: It Needs Work

We all knew it was coming. Once Charlotte Flair returned to WWE & was inserted into the SmackDown Women’s Championship Match at SummerSlam, it was only going to be a matter of time before her longstanding friendship with Becky Lynch went kaputski. They weren’t Sasha Banks & Bayley, two women who can’t quit each other no matter how hard they try. Somebody was going to win at SummerSlam & somebody was going to lose, and the loser was going to be pissed.

We can’t blame Becky for being pissed. After all, SummerSlam was supposed to be her night. She was finally going to get a one on one opportunity for the strap, one she hadn’t gotten in over a year & a half. The title she’d held before anybody else had. She knew she could beat Carmella in a fair match. Adding Charlotte to the mix gummed up the works.

The beatdown itself got the reaction you would expect from a SummerSlam crowd. We’re talking about Brooklyn at its finest here. All the hipster smart marks out in full force. Becky Lynch would be right up their ally. Charlotte Flair…well, not so much. WWE was swimming against the grain with this turn, but they went through with it because they’re WWE and they make things work.

Look at their bottom line & stock price. You think I’m going to argue against them? Hell to the no. That’s somebody else’s game to play. Somebody that doesn’t live in the world we live in, where WWE is the boss & questioning them seems foolish. Turn Becky Lynch heel? Sure, why not?

Surely she will explain it in a promo…

I saw everybody hop on Twitter to explain how this was the greatest heel promo ever. Really? Really? Like…Really? Don’t get me wrong, Becky tried. She wanted to turn that crowd against her. Buit Brooklyn had other things in mind.

Thank you to the Brooklyn fans at #Barclays for staying with Becky Lynch regardless of the obvious scripting attempts to mark her heel. #WWE #SDLive

— Column of Honor (@AriBerenstein) August 22, 2018

That’s how they operate. Turning Becky against that crowd was never going to work. Even if it was a diminished SmackDown Live crowd. Showing up for that lets people know how hardcore you really are. It’s one thing to attend SummerSlam. It’s another to attend the whole weekend through to SD Live, or to just show up for SD Live. That proves your true wrestling fan credentials right there.

True wrestling fans are going to identify with Becky more than Charlotte. They just are. No matter what Charlotte does, or the obstacles she faced to get where she is, she’s going to be seen as Ric Flair’s daughter that had a silver spoon in her mouth. Perception is reality, and nobody’s going to convince most wrestling fans that Charlotte had to overcome the same obstacles that Becky Lynch did. They will always assume that Becky had to work hard while Charlotte didn’t. And it’s probably true, as Charlotte is among the most naturally gifted female athletes to set foot in a WWE ring. It might not have been handed to her, but it sure came easier to her than it did to most.

Becky’s turn, and the WWE Universe’s refusal to boo her afterwards, reminds me of another infamous turn of years gone by. I’d consider it the biggest heel turn that never really worked. Like Becky, Stone Cold Steve Austin’s heel turn made perfect sense. He told the Rock prior to WrestleMania X-Seven that he needed to beat him more than anything the Rock could ever imagine. Austin’s desire to be WWF Champion again led him to do the unthinkable & enlist the services of his longtime nemesis, Mr. McMahon. It should have resulted in Austin being booed from here to kingdom come. It didn’t.

Fans had a tough time with rooting against somebody they’d been so solidly behind during the WWF’s greatest period of prosperity. It wasn’t like Hulk Hogan turning heel, where the fans had grown tired of his act after years without changing it up & were ready for something new. Austin still had too much goodwill built up with the people, even if he wanted to pal around with Mr. McMahon & Triple H while beating Jim Ross up in Oklahoma, hitting Lita with a chair & doing whatever else he could do to gin up some heat. The fans that didn’t tune out still wanted to cheer Stone Cold. As good as he was in the role, it didn’t work.

When the fans don’t want to boo somebody, they’re not going to. Not without sufficient persuasion. Stone Cold Steve Austin might not be an equal comparison to Becky Lynch, so I’ll present somebody that can pretty much be considered the Becky Lynch of WWE’s male roster.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!@BeckyLynchWWE

— Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) August 20, 2018

You knew that Sami Zayn had to be a happy camper watching Becky beat Charlotte down at SummerSlam. He’d told her months ago that she needed to leave the pandering to the fans behind & find her edge. They both spent way too much time trying to be liked instead of doing what was necessary to get to the top. Sami & Becky are underdogs. They can’t rely on WWE giving them handouts like the chosen ones get.

Where Becky can further learn from Sami is how to become more unlikeable. A lot of us thought that Sami would have difficulty as a heel because he had been the ultimate babyface for so long, even during his years on the independent circuit. He didn’t. Sami was such an annoying SOB after his turn that fans just had to boo him. He even made Kevin Owens seem somewhat likeable in comparison, and KO’s character is one of the biggest assholes on the WWE roster.

If Sami can do it, Becky can do it. I have faith that Becky Lynch will eventually show the rest of you humanoids that she’s an evil person that deserves your disdain. Unless you’re one of those sickos that’s into women treating you bad, which my friends tell me that I am.