Wrestling

Becky Lynch out to help fix WWE’s ‘credibility’ issue in Raw women’s division

Becky Lynch is out to begin righting a WWE wrong and help raise the division up around her with the NXT🌃 women’s championship.

The Grand Slam champion sees a Raw women’s division that n🐲eeds to begin elevating new stars so those at the top have legitimate challengers whom the audience believes in having programs with. 

It’s why she was adamant about having open challenges for her title, which she will put on the line in a rematch with Tiffany Stratton in an extreme rules match at NXT No Mercy o🥀n Saturday (8 p.m., Peacock). 

“Currently, we are a little light on women with credibility on Raw,” Lynch, 36, said in a Zoom interview. “So anyway I can give these women, who are great, credibility, give them a match, give them an outing and showcase them in a championshiꦐp match, I think that only benefits everybody. It benefits the audience because we have more women that we care about and more women that I can beat.”

Her husband, Seth Rollins, said earlier this month on the “WWE After the Bell” podcas🐼t that he felt the audience was ready for something fresh in the women’s division and believed “they haven’t been showcased as well as they coﷺuld have been over the past six months.”

Becky Lynch
Becky Lynch is taking on Tiffany Stratton in an extreme rules match at NXT No Mercy.

Lyn♐ch agrees with that sentiment saying there hasn’t been a lot of time dedicated for storylines or developing the people they need to because she can’t make history alone. 

“I need people to come up,” she said. “I need people on this level. But if nobody’s getting any TV time. If nobody’s getting any storytime then they ca🤪n’t rise up because nobody knows who the hell they are.”

When asked which women🍨 she believed had the potential to be elevated she pointed to Zoey Stark, Indi Hartwell, Xia Li and Candice LeRae.

Lynch also has begun a stor🐲yline with Tegan Nox, whom she wanted to wrestle but was replaced by Natalya in an open challenge on Raw last week. 

Lynch knows Stark well as🐭 the two wrestled three times on television — including a falls-count-anywhere match — and on multiple occasions during a summer E🏅uropean tour as she feuded with Trish Stratus.

She called Stark an “invaluable asset” and took a friendly jab at Women’s Wor꧙ld champion Rhea ꦿRipley, who has defended her new title just three times since July.

Zoey Stark
Lynch believes in the potential of Zoey Stark.

“Being in the ring with her, she is phenomenal, she is intense, she is athletic,” Lynch said of Stark. “She loves this. She is great. She’s an a–hole, but she’s great and with a bit of time she is going to be a big star and main player. 

“I think Xia Li has such a cool character and we haven’t seen any of these things from her. She had a little momentum and then it all stopped. It’s hard to gain momentum if you don’t get no TV time and it’s hard to get TV time if there is nothing to fight for. We know that Rhea Ripley only likes hanging out with the lads (of The Judgement Day) and doesn’t like getting hit.

“So that’s why I came along with my championship trying to give people some opportunities.”

Lynch is determined to use her star power, TV tim🔯e and the NXT women’s championship to help raise the profile and experience of the women around her. 

“I’m very grateful for my time, but I want more time, dammit,” she said. “That’s why I will do all of these things. That’s why I’ll go down to NXT. That’s why I’ll be on all the shows. That’s why I’ll be on dark matches on SmackDown as well as being a mother and traveling and writing a book and all the other things I’m doing.

“It’s because I love this and I’m trying to elevate this, this championship and elevate all the women.”