Becky Lynch against Ronda Rousey in a singles match is what pro wrestling fans have wanted to see since November 2018 – and Lynch is OK with making them wait a little bit longer.
Lynch, who will defend her Raw women’s championship against Bianca Belair on Night 1 of a two-night WrestleMania 38 at AT&T Stadium on April 2-3 (8 p.m., Peacock), said she wasn’t surprised WWE booked Charlotte Flair as Rousey’s first WrestleMania opponent after the former UFC star returned from a nearly three-year absence in January. The company has eyes on next year’s WrestleMania at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium to finally hold the match. It’s one fans have clamored for since Lynch was pulled from facing Rousey at the 2018 Survivor Series because she suffered a facial fracture and concussion from a stiff Nia Jax punch.
“I think the idea was, let’s give it even more of a build and possibly do this in Hollywood [at WrestleMania 39] of all places,” Lynch said in a phone interview. “I think the idea was to give it a little bit of extra time, and hell, let frickin’ Ronda get her feet wet.”
The 35-year-old Rousey, like Lynch, recently had her first child. She came back four months later to win the Royal Rumble and has had just seven official matches since. As a result of winning the Rumble, Rousey selected the SmackDown women’s champion Flair, in the storyline, to be her WrestleMania 38 opponent over Lynch, saying she would just be the first on her list.
It was Flair who took Lynch’s place at Survivor Series in 2018 and Rousey won the physical match by disqualification after the Queen hit her with a kendo stick. Lynch, who is no longer working as a babyface, but the heelish “Big Time Becks,” also has her own unfinished story with Bianca Belair – dating back to her SummerSlam return in 2021 – to tie up at WrestleMania 38. It made pushing her long-anticipated meeting with Rousey down the road a logical decision.
“We had to tell this story with Bianca, too,” Lynch said. “So was I surprised? No, not entirely, not really. I think they thought of Hollywood as maybe being the spot for where this match would go down.”
She believes the audience’s fascination with the match is rooted in the Survivor Series feud that never truly got a payoff – though Lynch defeated Rousey and Flair in the historic main event of WrestleMania 35 to become a double champion. It was Lynch’s “The Man” character in a storyline that challenged Rousey’s status as “the chosen one,” getting catapulted to the top of the roster after coming from UFC and not paying her dues. Her character, which saw herself as the top person in the industry, was resentful of that and wasn’t shy about saying it.
“My talent, my skill, my ability to communicate has gotten me to the top,” Lynch said. “So I don’t care what your name is, you’re behind me right now. It was that attitude that started this whole thing and then obviously we were supposed to have that Survivor Series match and my face got busted open and we never had that one-on-one match. So maybe, we’ll have it next year. Maybe something else will happen. I’m not worried. I am the name right now.”
One name that is also on Lynch’s list for a potential match is WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus. While Stratus has said her 2019 SummerSlam match with Charlotte Flair in Toronto was her final one, the two crafted a Twitter feud around both of them appearing at a WWE live event in Ontario, Canada this past weekend that could easily be used as a jumping-off point for a story. It got physical with Stratus slapping Lynch at one point.
“I could end Trish Straus,” said Lynch, who defeated close Stratus friend and legend Lita at Elimination Chamber in February. “I’ve already ended her bestie. I could end her too if she wants.”