Lynch on Wanting to Help Make Women’s Wrestling ‘the Coolest Thing on TV’

Jul 9, 2019 - by James Walsh

ESPN Women recently spoke to WWE Raw women’s champion Becky Lynch and GLOW star Alison Brie. Below are some highlights.

Lynch on wanting women’s wrestling to be the coolest thing on TV: “Oh yeah, absolutely. What I wanted coming into this career was for women’s wrestling to be the coolest thing on TV. I wanted to change the term from ‘divas’ to ‘women’, which we did three years ago, and I wanted to headline the main event at WrestleMania. But I also wanted the audience to demand it, not because we were women but because they cared about our story more than any other story, and they did. Our women’s main event was at the end of a seven-hour show, and everybody stayed. That makes me super proud.”

Lynch on what drove her to stay on her path: “At 15, I was doing things that I shouldn’t. I was a little stoner teenager, drinking too much. I was an alternative kid, so doing anything mainstream was just not cool enough for me. I was one of those people. But I was a huge wrestling fan. I found out that they were opening a wrestling school about an hour and a half away. I went down there with my baggy pants and my thong hanging out, because I was a big Lita fan, expecting this giant wrestling ring and a bunch of really fit people. And there’s just, like, six blue padded mats on the ground and some skinny teenagers all trying to grow their hair out to look like The Hardy Boyz. I was the only girl.”

Becky Lynch on overcoming mental obstacles to make it to WWE: “I had the same mental obstacles. I got in my own way more than anybody else did. I doubted myself, telling myself, ‘You’re not athletic: you’re not pretty enough.’ Somebody told me, ‘WWE isn’t going to want girls like you.’ At the time, they were just hiring models. So I took the focus off what made me special and tried to fit into this mold. And it really just broke me.”

Becky Lynch on women WWE Superstars ranking among the most followed social media athletes: “It’s because I came into the WWE. [Laughs] No, no. We’re continuing the evolution of women’s sports across the board. We’ve started to show people that given the opportunity, given the time, we can put on just as good, if not better, matches than the guys. So why is gender even an issue anymore?”

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