Welcome everyone to WrestleMania Saturday! The greatest two-night event in WrestleMania history kicks off tonight at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX. As of this writing, there is still some confusion about what the real main event of the night will be. WWE has been throwing around the words “main event” like they’re putting on an Oprah special and everyone gets one, but there’s one match in particular tonight that a lot of fans have said (via social media) is their main event: Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair for the RAW Women’s Championship.
“The main event of the people! Even if people don’t like me anymore. I’ll tell you what your main event is: it’s me!”
Becky Lynch has been on fire during the media rounds this week, hyping her big title defense. Whether it’s what she told me there during WrestleMania Media Junket, or what she told me ariel helwani in a face-to-face meeting, Big Time Becks seems pretty adamant that it doesn’t matter what time she and Bianca fight. Even if that means the SmackDown Women’s Championship match between Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey brings the show to a close.
“It doesn’t make any difference. They can continue later. Again, I don’t think they’re going to be the main event. Look, my match is going to steal the show, my match is going to be better, my story has been better, everything I’ve done has been better, that’s not even a question.”
“Even if they’re last, I don’t care, my stuff is better, my stuff is the real main event.”
“I think, in terms of history, the only two women who have won the main event of WrestleMania, the main event of WrestleMania, being the last ones, I think it would be the perfect story. Two losers in the main event of WrestleMania? Two main event losers in the main event of WrestleMania?
“You feel that it is a symbolic gesture that they are going to be the last by the name of Ronda. I don’t think anyone thinks their story is better and that they deserve it. (ht WONF4W)”
While there are still a number of holdouts who just can’t put the past behind them and desperately cling to the days of “The Man” going from town to town, there’s no denying that both character and character work. Becky Lynch has been working since she returned to SummerSlam last year, she has been spectacular.
In the last few weeks alone, Lynch has been in a downward spiral as he feels the incredibly talented and hungry Bianca Belair breathing down his neck. She’s on the verge of a mental breakdown and it’s very likely she’ll break completely if WWE’s EST becomes the first woman in three years to beat her for the RAW Women’s Championship.
“This is my identity. This is what I am. I don’t even know what I’d do with my damn hands if I made my entrance, if I didn’t have the title,” Lynch said during the WrestleMania Media Tour. “I can’t think about losing this. I can’t think about that. I don’t think I don’t like where I would go if I had to think about losing my title. It’s all I’ve ever known. That’s all I’ve known for the last three years.
Much of what Big Time Becks has been saying this week has clearly been in character. Media scrums like the one I participated in on Friday are the perfect opportunity for Lynch to have fun and sharpen her wits and his quips. Unless you take her completely by surprise like I did.
Becky Lynch has been someone I’ve wanted to talk to for the better part of the last four years. I’m never one to make a story about myself, but in this case I needed to thank you. In 2018 she was at a low point mentally and professionally. I had just been hit by a series of professional failures and I was convinced of the fact that she just wasn’t going to go to the places I envisioned.
Most of that summer I was considering a change of occupation, after spending eight years trying to carve out a career as a broadcaster. Needless to say, my confidence, which I still struggle with on a daily basis, was at an all time low.
As a long-time WWE fan, he often turned to professional wrestling to escape. And a younger Rick Ucchino was (and still is) a huge fan of Becky Lynch. Yes, I will admit that I am one of those annoying Twitter fans in 2018, screaming for WWE to properly book someone we all knew was extremely talented. By the way, we were right, but I digress. Finally, WWE took notice of SummerSlam that year and Lynch took off like a rocket. She ascended to heights that no woman in WWE history had reached before her, with millions of fans joining her on the journey.
Understandably, Lynch did a lot of media at the time and that’s when I really started paying attention. Because when he talked about his early days in WWE, he openly talked about his doubts. His lack of confidence. Feeling sorry for being the SmackDown Women’s Champion. I kept thinking, what did she not see in herself, that I saw? How many did you see? So I started thinking, what am I not seeing in myself?
To cut a long story short (too late), there was suddenly a spark that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Something told me to give him another chance. So I sent an email. That email was the first domino to fall on a three-year journey that brought me here. The last few years have been the best of my career. I’ve had the opportunity to do amazingly cool things, meet amazing people, and interview a number of people I look up to. Including now, Big Time Becky Lynch. I told her all this and suddenly I wasn’t talking to Becky Lynch anymore. I was talking to Rebecca Quin.
I’m not the first person to tell you a story like that. She has inspired many of her fans around the world and continues to do so on a daily basis.
“That means the world. And I think that’s the thing, is that we forget how universal those doubts are. And how close can overcompensation of confidence come to crippling insecurity, you know? And so we don’t realize that the biggest stars you see on your TV doubt themselves and worry that their stuff isn’t good enough. That they are not good enough. Which is old news, which has been.
It is a constant battle. And especially when you are bombarded and we are all constantly bombarded by so much negativity and doubt. You have to find a way to filter that constantly. And my way of doing it is to say, ‘Oh, they win. They win. If they make me doubt myself, then they win and they can’t win, because I’m a winner. But yeah, it’s such a universal thing.”
Quin then praised his good friend Big E, who recently suffered a broken neck on an episode of Friday Night SmackDown and has been nothing short of a beacon of positivity ever since.
“It’s so good that we’re getting to a point where we talk about mental health a lot more, because I think a lot of people struggle with it, but it’s not something you can see. So I love that people talk about it and anything that people can be inspired by… Big E, for example, has been a great champion lately. And I mean, you know Big E and he’s a bundle of love. Couldn’t say a bad word about him. One of the most talented people I have come across in my life, he is loved by everyone and is someone who has also dealt with insecurities, with doubts. But he talks about it. And man what a champion and just showing you what is possible and what an amazing person you can be when you tackle these things. Though I don’t think Big E was ever anything other than the fucking best.”
On behalf of all those who are inspired by both Becky Lynch and Big E, and strive to be better versions of themselves because of them, let me thank you both.
You can check out my full interview with Becky Lynch and Rebecca Quin for the Bleav on the pro wrestling podcast in the video above, also feel free to check out some of my other conversations from the weekend below.
Rea Ripley: “I am a singles competitor and I was so ready to go out on my own and be the lone wolf that I love to be. So the first time we tagged each other, like before the game, I was like, ‘Oh, do I really want to do this?’ But then she (Liv Morgan) came up to me and said, ‘Do you want to put my shirt on?’ And I was like, “Oh, this is going to be good. This is going to be good. I already like this couple.”
Sami Zayn: “That’s one of the things that people don’t understand about being in WWE, how chaotic it all is. And how sometimes, it’s not about the Intercontinental Title, it’s not important, let’s rule it out. Sometimes it’s just the dominoes falling and sometimes you’re just the odd man out.”
AJ Styles: “You know what, I should be happy (that I was his last Undertaker match), but I’m not.”
The Lotarians: “Ohhhhhhhhhhh… We can do it forever! 24/7, whatever you want!”
Rick Ucchino can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @RickUcchino and be sure to subscribe to the Bleav on the professional wrestling YouTube channel.
