Nearly a decade on from first bursting onto the WWE scene in NXT, Becky Lynch finally reached the very pinnacle of the black and gold earlier this month by winning the NXT Women’s Championship. Lynch ended the 107-day reign of Tiffany Stratton on the September 12th edition of NXT, has since gone on to defend the belt against Natalya, and will defend it again against Tegan Nox on next Monday’s edition of Raw.
Whilst Lynch never captured the title during her initial NXT run, she was presented as one of the brand’s top female stars alongside fellow self-proclaimed Four Horsewomen Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and the former Sasha Banks – now STARDOM and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Mercedes Varnado. But things didn’t start well for The Man on the black and gold brand as she recalled whilst appearing on the latest episode of Insight With Chris Van Vilet.
Lynch looked back on her 2014 debut in NXT, where she made her entrance to stereotypical Irish music whilst doing an Irish jig. “If that is not proof that you can dig yourself out of any fall, then I don’t know what is,” Lynch proclaimed. “I would put that over Shockmaster in terms of shameful debuts. Yeah, he just fell over, okay, fine, that sucks. I went out, I was committed to that. I think the difference is he didn’t intend to fall over. I intended to go out there and do an Irish jig like that and thought that I was worthy of being on WWE television. That happened.”
In response, Van Vilet asked her how she escaped that character as there’s a storied history of other potential stars who got stuck with a bad gimmick and couldn’t escape it. “I think there’s always a catalyst for change, right? You’ve just got to figure out what it is: Winning a match can be catalyst for change, losing a match can be a catalyst for change. You just sometimes need the right story, the right antagonist or protagonists, depending on what way you’re going to go.
But I think that’s the fun thing about wrestling, we can do anything,” Lynch continued. “You can go from being a stupid, silly Irish dancing clown to being The Man of the business and main eventing WrestleMania holding two titles over your head. I suppose in a way, that’s the thing about life, right? You don’t have to be stuck as the person that you were or with the thing that you did, you can move on. You can learn from your mistakes and hope you never go back there and I hope I never go back in that green attire doing an Irish dance.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit Insight With Chris Van Vilet.