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'Unfathomable': Becky Lynch discusses WWE dream match with Lita

Becky Lynch speaks during an episode of
Becky Lynch speaks during an episode of "Monday Night Raw." (Photo credit: WWE)

In sports, it’s rare for generational talents to share the field with the kids who grew up watching them.

Sometimes, you’ll get Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game. Other times, you’ll get an inspirational and heartwarming moment like the one Los Angeles Rams lineman Andrew Whitworth described last week. If you play long enough, you may even get to be teammates with the children of athletes you played against, a la Tom Brady and Antoine Winfield Jr.

For Becky Lynch, that dream scenario becomes reality on Saturday as the WWE Raw women’s champion faces Lita, a trailblazing figure in women’s wrestling, at the Elimination Chamber event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“Lita was my teenage idol,” Lynch told Yahoo Sports. “If you told me back then that in 22 years I would be facing her — as I walked around in my baggy pants with the top of my [underwear] out and my dyed red hair — I would have lost my mind. In my first match I was doing Lita-canranas. To know that I will be facing her for the Raw women’s championship, the same one she presented to us at WrestleMania 32, it’s something unfathomable.”

Elimination Chamber will be the 7th show WWE has held in Saudi Arabia over the past four years. It will also be the fourth consecutive show that female wrestlers have performed on the card. Lynch wrestled in Saudi Arabia last October, defending her championship against Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair, so she has an idea of what to expect when she walks through the curtain Saturday night.

“The crowd was amazing the first time, just unbelievable, so there for everything that we did and so appreciative,” Lynch said. “Now, I’m prepared and well aware of how great the crowd is over there after that firsthand experience. I’m even more excited about performing this time.”

Lynch’s reputation as one of the top draws in WWE and Lita’s status as a bonafide legend in the industry – nostalgia often is a major selling point of the Saudi Arabia shows – led to their faces being featured on billboards promoting the event in Jeddah, a moment WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon heralded in an email as “remarkable.”

WWE stars Becky Lynch and Lita are seen on billboards in Saudi Arabia. (Photo credit: WWE)
WWE stars Becky Lynch and Lita are seen on billboards in Saudi Arabia. (Photo credit: WWE)

“It’s a great honor,” Lynch said, echoing the sentiment. “You do this thing because you love it, because you have a passion for it, because you want to make a difference. You want to make sure that people know that it doesn’t matter what your gender or background is, that you have the ability to rise to the top of whatever industry you’re in. To see the impact that that has culturally and globally, that’s incredible. Especially as the mom to a baby girl, being able to show her that there will be no limits, it’s really quite special.”

Lynch (real name Rebecca Quin) stepped away from WWE in May 2020, after announcing that she and Seth Rollins were expecting their first child, Roux, who was born in December that year.

At the time, Lynch was on a nearly two-year run as the biggest and most popular name in women’s wrestling. After 15 months away, Lynch made her surprise return in last August, at SummerSlam, winning the Smackdown women’s championship in seconds and emphatically announcing her return to WWE.

Lynch admits that the time off allowed her to change the way she approaches her craft and show that she can remain at the top of the industry despite a 15-month layoff and juggling motherhood.

Becky Lynch made her WWE return in Las Vegas last August at SummerSlam. (Photo credit: WWE)
Becky Lynch made her WWE return in Las Vegas last August at SummerSlam. (Photo credit: WWE)

“It took a lot of focus and a lot of hard work,” Lynch said. “I really wanted to come back better than ever. It’s what I said and it’s what I really wanted. I wanted to prove to myself and everybody that you can have it both ways. That’s what I have been doing. I have buckled down in a way that I never had before.”

Although she had honed and developed “The Man” character into arguably the most popular WWE gimmick of the past decade, shortly after her return, Lynch opted to undergo a transformation professionally. Lynch took the idea that she’s the biggest draw in the women’s division and ran with it, crafting yet another persona, “Big Time Becks.”

“I think having that extra motivation of this little girl [changed things],” Lynch said. “You’re so embedded in the rat race constantly, that you never get to sit back and think and strategize about what you’re going to do. When I was off for that time, I really had the chance to think about these things and think about stories in a different way. When I came back, it was rather suddenly so I didn’t have the time to think about it [in that moment] but I had done the preparation so that when they threw me back in I was mentally prepared for it and I knew what I was doing.”

Behind the scenes, Lynch has changed as well, revealing that — like many new parents — Roux has altered her perception and allowed her to evolve as a performer.

“Traveling with a baby and doing all of those things on the road, I feel in a way that it has allowed me to be more fluid in my creative,” Lynch said. “If something doesn’t go my way, I just try and figure it out as opposed to being rigid and getting stuck on it. That could sometimes be my downfall before. I would let stuff fester a bit longer than I have the ability to now. I remember somebody telling me before I had Roux that I’d never have a bad day at work again. I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but what they meant was that the most important thing is your child. If something goes wrong with your child. it makes the thing that goes wrong at work so minuscule in comparison to this little person who is your everything.”

Juggling parenthood with the rigors of working in WWE also offers Lynch some common ground with Ronda Rousey, who recently returned to WWE after nearly three years away and having her own child last September as well.

Rousey returned to win the women’s Royal Rumble match last month and set up a WrestleMania match with Charlotte Flair. Lynch beat both Rousey and Flair in the first WrestleMania to feature women in the main event in 2019.

“I’ve said this before: Nobody understands how hard what Ronda is doing more than I do,” Lynch said. “Having a baby, being a mom, being a parent, it’s really hard work, no one can underestimate how hard that is. Traveling with a baby, you see it on planes and it’s stressful, but to do it every week, that’s stressful as hell. To wrestle and be on live TV 52 weeks a year, that’s stressful as hell. To combine all of those things, that’s stressful as hell.”

A rematch between the two moms, Lynch and Rousey, will undoubtedly happen down the line, but should Lynch defeat Lita on Saturday, a premium WrestleMania slot awaits her nonetheless. Of the past seven WrestleManias, Lynch has had a championship match in five of them, including her historic bout at MetLife Stadium three years ago. Her opponent for this year's event will also be decided on Saturday.

“Whoever gets to face me, it’s a dream match for them to face me on the biggest stage of them all,” Lynch quipped, as her “Big Time Becks” persona slipped through.

For now, Lynch gets the rare opportunity to share the ring with one of her idols — as she continues to become one herself.