Becky Lynch feels a lot like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
Just hear me out.
In 1997, Steve Austin was supposed to be a heel. He was the antagonist for Bret Hart, the babyface, and he was a menace who wouldn’t listen to rules or authority. He turned into the best antihero in the history of the wrestling business, and the rest is history.
Becky Lynch turned on Charlotte last summer, and she was supposed to be the heel. WWE tried to force it for a few months, but they finally started listening to the crowd and adjusting. Lynch isn’t the same antihero as Austin, but the underlying story is very similar. Austin was angry at getting cut off at every turn and never getting elevated into the main-event spot he knew he deserved. Lynch, in the storyline, was angry with Charlotte for (more than once) swooping in and stealing her championship or her title opportunity.
So here we are, smack dab in the middle of the road to WrestleMania. Becky Lynch, who won the women’s Royal Rumble match, was slated to take on Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship in what would have been the main event for the show in New York. Plans changed this week when Vince McMahon suspended Becky Lynch for 60 days after she attacked Stephanie McMahon last week. That suspension will run five days longer than WrestleMania, and Vince introduced Charlotte as her replacement in the title match against Rousey.
Suddenly, the 2018 antihero is in the same feud Austin found himself in 20 years ago.
The match the WWE audience wants to see — they’re practically begging for it — is Lynch vs. Rousey. It would seem, with this latest development, that at the very least WWE is going to make the match a triple threat with Charlotte.
Or, maybe they do something different.
Rumors swirled over the weekend and at the start of this week that WWE is in talks with Batista for a potential return to the company. The Guardians of the Galaxy star isn’t returning for a long run, but a WrestleMania match wouldn’t be out of the question. Batista seems serious, too. He was also meeting with Chris Jericho, who has obvious ties to AEW, so it seems apparent that Batista wants one last, or maybe a few more, wrestling matches before he hangs up his boots for good.
In Vince McMahon’s mind, nothing is bigger than the McMahon family. What if WWE chooses a different path for Lynch. Everyone wants to see Lynch one-on-one against Rousey, but I could see the McMahon family working out a deal where Triple H and Stephanie face Becky Lynch and Batista in a mixed tag at WrestleMania.
Triple H and Batista have an obvious history, and if Batista is going to return for a one-off match, something involving Triple H makes the most sense. Becky attacked Stephanie on Raw two weeks ago … why? It had to set up something, right?
Maybe it was there for the suspension storyline that leads to Charlotte’s insertion into the match, but that seems convoluted. They could be setting up the heat for a Lynch-Stephanie match, as part of a mixed tag.
Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!
