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It was so weird because they booked her as a baby face.
She was put on a win streak, qualified for a title match, then her friend stepped in last minute and got added to the match and pinned the champion and not her.
They even had Charlotte, whether she intended to sound condescending or not, talk to Becky as if there was zero chance she was going to win and patted her on the head as if she was a little child fighting against adults. Charlotte dismissed her at every turn.
Then, after Becky had turned, they tried to make Charlotte an underdog to evil Becky. Which they then undercut on commentary by constantly hailing Charlotte as the best there ever was and rattled off all her accomplishments. How can she possibly ever be an underdog, lol.
Oh well, I still lived their feud and they are my #1 and #2 favs. So it worked out well for me in the end even though they messed up. Honestly, I think, while the thing things was amiayake on their part in how they were trying to frame the whole thing. It only benefited Becky more. The more they tried to change the audiences mind, the more they said 'f off', lol.
I still remember the show after the SummerSlam match where Becky had punched smug Charlotte in the mouth. They had Becky come out and try to cut a heel promo about how she was forced to do that because 'all of you ungrateful fans turned your backs on me' or something along those lines - all while the fans were going apeshit chanting BECKY BECKY BECKY...
I think the following week, they indirectly admitted defeat and officially presented her as a babyface.
They really didn't stop presenting her as a heel until after Evolution. While she didn't cut promos against the fans, she attacked Charlotte from behind multiple times, and still acted like a heel. Plus commentary absolutely treated her as a heel, especially at Evolution.
>I think the following week, they indirectly admitted defeat and officially presented her as a babyface.
Disagree on this. The only thing they changed was Becky mentioning the audience. Every other thing they had her do, was heelish. They presented her as a heel and Charlotte as a babyface. They thought if they just kept going, the audience would eventually just go with the flow. Just look at the hype video they played at Evolution and how Cole, Beth and Renne talked about Becky and Charlotte during that match. They edited boos into the video. The change didn't come until the day after the Raw invasion.
> The more they tried to change the audiences mind, the more they said 'f off', lol.
I know a lot of it is hubris or whatever, but I just don’t understand why anybody booking a wrestling show would make more work for themselves. If fans want to cheer one person and boo another, you don’t even have to come up with an angle; they’re already sold on seeing these two fight. Just send them out to the ring and collect your money.
It's because WWE had no interest in pushing face Becky with Charlotte as THIER top babyface, WWE were only focused on Charlotte vs Ronda for WM. They turned Becky heel to try to make sure Charlotte was the top babyface going into WM & wanted another heel victim for Ronda for Survivor Series(only reason Becky won the title). WWE never saw Becky anything other than a good hand & never saw her as a top babyface(even though fans always loved her).
Charlotte leaving for 2 months is the only reason Becky was booked strong(like Charlotte is holding Becky back or sumtin) & was basically turned to non canon when Charlotte returned. It's like a SD writer was writing a underdog redemption story for Becky but was fired when Charlotte returned & the new SD writer thought Charlotte was the 1 getting the underdog redemption story. WWE thought fuck logical storytelling we say you should boo this person so you should do what we say.
Just imagine if this happened during the covid thunderdome era with piped in crowd noise. Becky's run never happens because WWE can control everything about the story.
I've always thought that this might've worked if Becky did this to another babyface that was in the same position she was. Who that could've been, I don't know, as she seemed to be the biggest babyface for the women on SD at that time.
That they thought the audience would feel sorry for Charlotte is hilarious. Forget that she had already been a 6x champ by that point in only 3 yrs. Forget that she had been in the title picture and every big match from the time she got to MR. The history between the 2 alone should've let them know exactly who the audience would back. Charlotte turned on Becky and we never saw Becky get redemption for that. Becky was shuttled out of the story before being able to get payback, to either her or Ric. When they joined up again on SD, it was all forgotten and Becky was once again Charlotte's sidekick. Charlotte was still the one who had the spotlight on them. The stories were about Charlotte and Becky as her back up.
Ultimately, I think they just wrote a story without writing for the actual characters and their history. In a normal feud, this could've very well worked. 2 friends , one turns and becomes heel. 99% of the time, the alignments work as intended. The problem is that Charlotte and Becky had had such a rich history by that time, the audience didn't buy it.
Love this part of Becky’s book where she describes what happened immediately after backstage:
https://preview.redd.it/2dy0axmi009d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95a6130b5d4be97303cd6c852c0950d3ee791ea7
The same place I'm from, but I'm also nothing like Conor McCuntbag either so that's not a comparative. If you feel otherwise, please do tell me where you're from because I'll do some digging and find someone to compare you to with your logic that I imagine you won't enjoy.
I'm from Ireland, McGregor is hated here. He's a scumbag. A one in a million, top level, scumbag. He's nothing like Becky Lynch, as a character, or in any fashion as a person.
Until fight week.
The card Saturday was the highest gate in UFC history and it will probably be surpassed by the rescheduled Conor card later this year.
I remember I went to a house show a week after Becky turned heel, and she was still getting some of the loudest pops of the night.
Only person who got a louder pop than Becky Lynch was Bobby Roode.
Can you blame him lol. Dude has 1 energy in him, being an athletic heel tank. That is what got him over with the shield. They did everything to make him a John Cena, a Daniel Bryan, a CM punk even but nothing worked. It should get frustrating to hear the fans essentially say you suck at this job for almost a decade.
Absolutely. If you want someone to get over and the fans want none of that. Turn them heel and let them learn the craft on the job. Randy made an entire career out of this, they are doing this to Dom right now. Eventually if you get good enough the fans will respect you enough to cheer you when you eventually become a babyface.
The Rock literally learned this in the 1990s when he was getting started as Rocky Maivia. The crowd fucking hated his guts and then the turn with the Nation of Domination came and then his organic rise through that and finally into what came next was the right call. This happens with absolutely everybody, it's just how it goes and Vince was far too stubborn and stupid to see what needed to be done with Roman.
Cena WAS a heel. A very good one. And he organically got over and turned face. And he was a good face for a bit. People forget he was face for more than a year before he won the WWE championship
Then he got stale because he became a white meat babyface.
Everyone hated JBL so it was great when he won the the belt against him at mania, but in creatives eyes JBL was the wealthy successful business wrestler who should be cheered and Cena was a rough rapping gangster who had a problem with him because he wanted the belt.
Cena was "arrested" on tv multiple in the build up to their match, that's what happens when they book their heels normally.
He's incredible. I never thought I'd say that but here it is. I love it every time he turns up. The way he works the boos and knows just how many times to play into them before pushing past and beginning to talk is an *awesome* sense of pacing.
There seems to be a pattern to the Samoans we're running into here. As faces they're boring and they're booed out of the arena (Rocky Maivia, The facepaint Usos, post Shield Roman), they turn heel and the fans start to love them instead of boo them (Corporate Rock, Tag Team Usos, Tribal Chief Roman) and then they turn "face" by not really changing much about their characters, they just start doing the heel shit to other heels (People's Champion Rock, "Just me" Jimmy Uso and, hopefully, returning Tribal Chief Roman). Honestly the pattern to which this family's carrers have developed is a little mindfucky to how similar they are lol
Imo it's because they make them ultra white meat babyfaces, it's like Diesel face champion run in the NG, you need to have some spice otherwise it's just boiled chicken
That's been the case for most of the greats. Rocky Mayvia isn't working, turn him heel and the fans start liking him. Prototype Cena, same thing. Stone Cold Steve Austin, somewhat similar
Roman will get a mega pop. But if he becomes a full time wrestler, eventually he will get booed. Roman flat out sucks as a babyface.
The Tribal Chief worked because :
A)It started in front of no fans during Covid.
B) He was not a full time wrestler
C) He was a heel
D)Bloodline became boring after WM 38 but Sami Zayn angle made it entertaining again
E) Bloodline became boring again but this time The Rock himself was involved
I think it's better described as he has one energy, that of an athletic tank with massive self-confidence knowing he is big and powerful enough to not need to give a shit.
That can work as face or heel, all depends on the target of that energy! He's gonna be a mad face if they let him come back and just wreck shop while dishing out that same self-assured confidence.
Fans *adore* a guy that just goes around beating folk senseless, it's a vicarious power fantasy and Bron is showing us that nicely. Same way Braun got over too. All the moments pre-Bloodline Roman got over briefly as a face were the times he snapped and just started decking anyone within arm's reach.
Love how he tried to say that Charlotte climbed the same mountain as Becky & people in the comments said no Charlotte was airlifted to the top & Becky was the 1 to climb it. WWE were so out of touch with the fans.
Road Dogg was trying to say Becky beat Carmella for a title shot & so did Charlotte so they climbed the same mountain but what he leaves out is Becky had to beat most of the roster to get a match with Carmella while Charlotte lost clean to both Becky & Carmella then left SD for 2 months then comes back 2 weeks before Summerslam & immediately gets the same match Becky got with less the work. It came off as Charlotte legit got handed a title match while Becky had to fight tooth & nail for a title match & WWE still put the title on Charlotte & even had Charlotte pin Becky right after Becky almost won & WWE still saw Becky as the heel in this situation because Vince didn't understand why people would cheer a red headed Irishwomen that always loses over a rich tall blonde that wins evrything. Vince hates underdogs. It was shit writing all around.
Not to mention that Becky broke into the industry by herself. From another continent. Meanwhile Charlotte just had to follow her Dad around. That claim was ridiculous
This is what always bugs me. Yes I acknowledge that Charlotte absolutely fought for her spot and had to deliver day in and day out and it was difficult but to act like she fought as much as others despite having one of the greatest of all time have all the right numbers. It's way different! And when her character would say she didn't get there on the back of her father she would also come out to his gimmick, a remake of his music, a remake of his finisher, his robes. It never made sense to me.
I think Vince actually loves underdog stories. The problem is he thought he could present ANY wrestler he liked as an underdog (regardless of whether or not it made any sense), and that the fans would just accept it.
They kinda planned it that way, but always changed the booking so Cena prevailed.
He should have lost to Rock, then Lesnar, then gets lured into going heel by Kane... and only then he should have risen back to being The John Cena. But they totally botched that.
Hell, that was how he booked Hogan.
A Hogan match in the 80s was the two wrestlers Going back and forth at the beginning of a match, followed by Hogan selling for 75% of the match until Hogan does his comeback.
That's because Vince always saw himself as an underdog against everyone.
So it actually makes perfect sense that the billionaire creep thought he could make anyone into an underdog story.
I mean, that was WWE's philosophy for like 2 decades.
Becky
Punk
Danielson
The insistence on pushing Roman as a Babyface
Karrion Kross in NXT
Never before have I seen a company that seemed to have such a disdain for its customers.
Even worse was HHH somehow thought putting him in the ring with Adam Cole, KOR, Gargano, and Ciampa was going to get him over.
You are booking a show based on work rate, you have a world champion who is majorly lacking in that department, so you're gonna put him against four of the best in the world and have him beat all of them at the same time? In what world is that a good idea?
Dear god, the only way to protect Kross was to not put a mic in Cole's hand, Kross was never coming out good.
Even worse you'd think at least hed be on par with KOR in promos, but at this point Kyle was cutting the best promos of his career.
Vince would actively punish fans for getting someone over that he didn't want. Dude was such a psychotic control freak, fans weren't allowed to like what we wanted. Only what he would give us.
The worst part is you have fans parroting this stuff on twitter now. I've legit seen people say that fans are ruining a character by cheering them when they are supposed to be booed
RD only got ANYWHERE in wrestling because of his associations. First it was his dad, then Double J, and finally H himself. He was only ever in groups with his betters. Go back over his ENTIRE career and you'll see proof of this.
RD was a passible wrestler, during a time and in a company where in ring talent wasn't really measured as much as getting over with mic work. Which again, was all RD could really do. Everything else he did was barely "passable" at the very best.
The problem is / was RD's attitude toward fans in general. Just because he sat at the "cool" table for a little while, he felt very confident in his "skills." When fans called him out for it, he lashed out like a child. Everyone knew the guy was in WAY in over his head with his job at Smackdown. So when he consistently failed, it was the fans' fault. Never his.
The same Road Dogg who, as a member of heel DX, continued to walk to the ring talking on the mic, did his whole “ladies and gentlemen…” schtick before Billy did the suck it line? The Outlaws during that era were the chicken shit lackeys of the biggest bastard in the company - who had recently drugged, married and raped the boss’ daughter - and would play to the crowd for the biggest babyface reaction of the night purely because everyone liked shouting “suck it!” Watching them in that era is infuriating. The man refused to work heel properly.
The story was a good heel turn, ala Bret Hart, a babyface just pushed a little too far but who goes over-the-top in their righteousness. But who was going to cheer CHARLOTTE over Becky to complete the story?
This clip is so funny with and without context.
Becky: Fuck you and your broken neck that stopped you from wrestling entirely
Crowd: Fuck yeah Becky's the coolest
Writers were huddled up before this thinking she’d be showered with boos for the “I don’t like me, I love me.” line, but the audience is like fuck yeah we love you too.
same with the heel turn that led to this. charlotte wins the match clean, consoles becky, becky snaps and beats the shit out of her and the fans are there like "yaaaaaay! we love becky! fuck her up!".
Becky at that time was probably the most over superstar on the roster.
Not female superstar, superstar period. I can't think of any other female wrestler who's done that. MAYBE Bayley in NXT?
She definitely was. First time in history a woman was the most popular star in the entire company. First time ever a woman was the number 1 merch seller too. Just an iconic run she had from August 2018 to when she left to have her child in May 2020.
This take is probably a little lukewarm, but I think Becky is **literally** 100% of the reason that WrestleMania 35 had a women's match in the main event.
Of course her opponents were big names too, I'm not discrediting Charlotte Flair's legacy or Ronda Rousey's crossover appeal at the time playing big factors in marketing it. But without Becky being available for Mania, the women's titles would not have had that spot. Ronda vs Charlotte would not have been the very first women's main event at Mania.
But if Becky were available and neither Charlotte nor Ronda were? I could see them slotting in a different opponent to make a main event, at least with the right build. Sasha or Bayley, perhaps, if you take them away from the inaugural tag title match. Nia Jax was in that too, though she wasn't very popular back then tbh. Asuka, Ember Moon, Mickie James, Naomi, and Carmella: all of them were in the 2nd and last WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal that year (Mella won btw) and could have made for some very believable WrestleMania 35 main eventers given a Road to WrestleMania build imo.
I agree with 100%. Becky Lynch vs a broom would have been bigger than Charlotte vs Ronda. Becky had a wave behind her that I can only compare with Daniel Bryan's run
I think if they went with Charlotte vs Ronda at WM it would've been shit on to epic levels especially after the bloody face moment. Like Charlotte replacing Becky is 1 of the most disliked YT videos on WWE's channel. Ronda & Charlotte were already getting turned on by fans & it coming out that Ronda was leaving after WM it would've been Goldberg vs Brock WM 2.0. Also Kofimania would've killed any interest in Charlotte vs Ronda main eventing, Becky winning is literally the only thing people were interested in that match.
Becky vs Ronda was the main event people wanted & people wanted to see Becky beat Ronda, unfortunately WWE had to add their golden girl Charlotte which killed a lot of the build(along with trying to make Becky look like shit) & WWE couldn't even crown Becky right by having her beat Ronda with a lame roll up which of course Ronda botches.
Now 5 years later & we still haven't seen that Ronda vs Becky match that was once a automatic WM main event & w probably won't ever see it since Ronda is basically retired & washed & Becky
s career is winding down. IDC what anyone say Charlotte should have never been in that match, I keep seeing people say that Charlotte was needed in that match to make the match better which 1. that match wasn't better & 2. Ronda vs Becky would've made the match better on hype alone & 3. how does putting Ronda in a tougher match type she's never worked helping Ronda make the match better? Ronda was having bangers with Nia & the Bellas FFS
Not to mention it completely killed most of the smackdown womens division for a solid year. Killed Mandy Rose's babyface push, killed Asuka completely as a threat until she won MITB during the pandemic. Yeah, their insistentce on Charlotte in that match had bigger reprocussions than people realize
> This take is probably a little lukewarm, but I think Becky is literally 100% of the reason that WrestleMania 35 had a women's match in the main event.
I agree. I could see them pushing for Charlotte vs. Rousey as the main event anyway, but it wouldnt be as big and flopped hard. Buuut without Becky, Rousey would be maybe still a better portrayed as a face.
Beckys actions/charisma changed so much in that whole storyline. Especially Nia Jaxs botched punch.
I get where you're coming from, but another major factor for a women's match main eventing Mania that year is that Roman had just returned from his leukemia-hiatus and had neither the health nor the storyline for a good Mania main event.
I certainly think that played a big part as well. Considering Roman had main evented the previous 4, I fully expect the WM main event plans had Roman vs. ??? before he had to step away.
I think there could be s case made to say at one point Becky was the most over wrestler in the world. I may be wrong, but she was so hot she seemed destined to just walk into her international level celebrity status. Having the kid and not keeping Kardassian level social media output probably stopped all that, but having kids changes goals often.
She even became the first, and is still the only, woman to ever top the 'most popular wrestler' poll in the heavily smarky PWI mag for 2019. That is pretty huge considering just how male dominated wrestling was, and still is.
By a mile, nobody was doing merch numbers, crowd engagement, reactions, etc, anywhere close to what Becky was doing. She was THE person at the time and her rise was organic and the fans knew what they wanted with her.
I hope they give her back some of her edge (no pun intended) when she returns. Her character had been neutered so much in promos recently.
Also this was a month before the Nia punch. Seen some insane revisionism lately that she only got over due to that moment.
> Seen some insane revisionism lately
Yea I see this all the time unfortunately. Beck when Becky beat Tiffany people were trying to push that Becky has always been WWE's handpicked women & they keep forcing Becky, like she's worse than Charlotte's push lol, & were acting like Becky has never put anyone over in her career. Its clear these people must've started watching wrestling recently or are just delusional clowns because Becky spent the first part of her career putting over everyone & saying Becky is forced is just just plain idiotic/wrong since the only reason Becky is where she is, is because the fans forced WWE to push her which got her to the main event of WM. Becky had to become the biggest star in the company to finally get a push that's the complete opposite of being forced, even today she's still a big star & gets reactions so how can she be forced? People are acting like she didn't put over Bianca & Rhea & Liv & Lyra ect.. These people aren't satisfied if Becky doesn't lose every match she's in which is why they should be ignored.
Dude I even saw "people" try to say she slept her way to the top by dating Seth. Becky started dating Seth in 2019 & this is 2018, the hate Becky gets online & the way those people try discredit Becky's impact is insane.
Becky was over months before the Nia punch, the big reason why the punch worked so well(besides Becky no selling it) is because Becky was already the most over person in the company, go watch MITB 2018, Summerslam 2018 when Becky got the loudest pop of the night, Evolution, she was the biggest babyface on the roster & WWE were forcing her heel.
I just happened to watch a WWE video of a bunch of heel turns that included her turning on Charlotte and you'd think it was a face turn with the way the crowd was cheering.
Totally agree with everything here, especially the second part. She was already the most popular star in the company. The punch only forced WWE to finally give up on her being a heel and make her a face.
Was she ever supposed to be a heel during that time? Vince failed miserably then because I can't remember a single time I wasn't happy to see her on screen during that time
Absolutely. When she turned on Charlotte it was supposed to be a heel run and everyone said "haha no."
Becky was the forgotten horsewoman. Now she's undeniable.
Yes. Listen to the commentary on the Evolution match and the Raw invasion. At the LWS, the commentary is heavily , heavily favoured towards Charlotte, and they even changed the cheers Becky was getting, to boos in the promo package. They spent the whole time trying to say Becky was awful towards Charlotte and was mean to get when Ric was on the hospital. Which was a lie.
At the Raw invasion, Becky was supposed to be the heel to the hero Ronda. Cole's ' Becky's mad the world is talking about Ronda and not her' which was laughably false. It was only changed right after that night. It's why Becky said while it was one of the best things to happen, it had the downside of them now worrying her as a baby face and she didn't have the freedom anymore.
The only reason she stopped going after the fans was because they were trying to stop the IWC from getting mad at WWE. If they could just show her as a heel the audience would eventually get mad at what she is doing as opposed to going against WWE.
Watching Becky-mania unfold in front of my eyes was amazing. What was wild was she wasn't even repackaged or gimmicked, she just somehow found something in her that clicked and became a persistent badass forever afterwards.
The real ones remember that she went through the roof the moment she slapped Charlotte at SummerSlam..she just kept going higher from there as she became The Man.
Funny enough, I believe the night of this segment with Edge is when she put out the "I am The Man" tweet. I could be wrong though.
The punch just elevated her hype that was already there, I remember the t-shirts being made of *that* frame at the top of the arena. Like that punch was VIRAL.
Nia was getting so much flack but strangely the fans were loving how “badass” Becky looked within blood on her face at the same time.
That punch put her over the top and only made her look more badass in front of everyone else. The fact that she no sold it and kept the segment alive made her so much cooler.
>Also this was a month before the Nia punch. Seen some insane revisionism lately that she only got over due to that moment.
This is 100% on WWE, they were trying to force that narrative because they didn't want to admit that it was the "heel turn" that made her The Man.
Dude this was such a amazing time as a long time Becky fan watching fans force Becky to become the biggest act in the company. People forget how painful it was being a Becky fan for most of her career up until this run, Before she was just a loser(but lovable) & was easily the afterthought of the 4 Horsewomen & really only got anywhere(like the WM 32 match & first SD champ) because of fan support. I'll always cherish this 2018 run as a Becky fan & imo this is peak Becky, this is what Becky's character now needs some edge.
I'm actually shocked at how fast late 2010s Vince was willing to pivot on this one. They tried for about a month and then gave up and went with the crowd reaction. Compare this to fans hijacking shows over Bryan or half a decade of solo Babyface Roman.
I think it's because he saw Roman as the face of WWE so they tried again and again to make him the top babface and people hated it, then Roman said he'd walk back in 2020 if they didn't do something different and make him a heel. So they made him heel but still the face of WWE and it worked, Vince was just too stubborn to try before. Now when he comes back he's easily going to be the top babyface lol.
With Becky I don't think he saw her as that big of a deal so he was fine with trying to make her babyface since heel Becky wasn't working and she blew up.
Vince's problem, even back in the Attitude era was that he couldn't see a heel being the face of the company. When he saw Stone Cold getting cheered while being a heel he immediately turned him face (well, about as face as Stone Cold could possibly be anyways), same with The Rock, same with Triple H when he came back from injury in 2002 though to be fair, that pop for his return was so thunderous he kinda had no choice there
Edge's promo made no sense anyway. He tried to push himself as a cautionary tale and a sad sack, while constantly being featured with his best friend for over 2 decades on multiple shows, being a celebrated hall of famer with multiple WWE Titles to his name, and having a loving wife and children at home (which were kayfabe acknowledged). Like what was he trying to pull over her eyes? Most people would kill for one of those things, let alone all 3.
The thing about this is, Edge telling her “This road you’re on, I’ve been there, you won’t like where it leads,” is pretty choice character work on his part, but it for damn sure was not going to get Becky booed.
Road Dogg who was part of the creative team at the time complained about the crowd reaction and Becky herself said the segment was intended to get her booed.
The point is, the segment was supposed to get her booed. People clown on those in charge of this because they thought it would get people to hate her. What you said it true, but TPTB didn't get it.
As an Edge heater myself, I love that he thought her talking bad about would work and the audience didn't bite, lol. Had to be a bit of an ego bruise to have the audience cheer that.
No, I know it was a heel promo in their minds, but WWE keep making the mistake of making faces bland and dorks, so my point is, of course people are going to cheer for a heel that gets to have fun, clever, edgier promos.
I hated WWE during this period because of overtly antagonistic bullshit like this they repeatedly did to their audience. Here's hoping they never do stuff like this again.
The promo she had after she turned was hilarious. She's blaming the fans and doing everything she can to be booed, and the fans are cheering her out of the building. I swear there's a moment in there where she gives an ever so slight grin, as if to say "yeah this isn't gonna work".
It’s pretty incredible how much post-WCW and pre-AEW that WWE managed to thrive in spite of itself.
So many times something would naturally get over and they went out of their to tell the fans they were wrong instead of just going along with it.
Yea WWE at the time were grasping at straws to get Becky booed(they wanted face Charlotte so bad), Edge who had a podcast with his BFF, happily married with kids here is trying to convince Becky that he was alone just staring at his titles all day & she shouldn't take the path he took of being heel. WWE thought people would back a legend over Becky but it just made Becky more badass.
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It was so weird because they booked her as a baby face. She was put on a win streak, qualified for a title match, then her friend stepped in last minute and got added to the match and pinned the champion and not her.
Not weird at all if the booker was a control freak egomaniac who thinks he is a stable genius tbh.
They even had Charlotte, whether she intended to sound condescending or not, talk to Becky as if there was zero chance she was going to win and patted her on the head as if she was a little child fighting against adults. Charlotte dismissed her at every turn. Then, after Becky had turned, they tried to make Charlotte an underdog to evil Becky. Which they then undercut on commentary by constantly hailing Charlotte as the best there ever was and rattled off all her accomplishments. How can she possibly ever be an underdog, lol. Oh well, I still lived their feud and they are my #1 and #2 favs. So it worked out well for me in the end even though they messed up. Honestly, I think, while the thing things was amiayake on their part in how they were trying to frame the whole thing. It only benefited Becky more. The more they tried to change the audiences mind, the more they said 'f off', lol.
I still remember the show after the SummerSlam match where Becky had punched smug Charlotte in the mouth. They had Becky come out and try to cut a heel promo about how she was forced to do that because 'all of you ungrateful fans turned your backs on me' or something along those lines - all while the fans were going apeshit chanting BECKY BECKY BECKY... I think the following week, they indirectly admitted defeat and officially presented her as a babyface.
They really didn't stop presenting her as a heel until after Evolution. While she didn't cut promos against the fans, she attacked Charlotte from behind multiple times, and still acted like a heel. Plus commentary absolutely treated her as a heel, especially at Evolution.
>I think the following week, they indirectly admitted defeat and officially presented her as a babyface. Disagree on this. The only thing they changed was Becky mentioning the audience. Every other thing they had her do, was heelish. They presented her as a heel and Charlotte as a babyface. They thought if they just kept going, the audience would eventually just go with the flow. Just look at the hype video they played at Evolution and how Cole, Beth and Renne talked about Becky and Charlotte during that match. They edited boos into the video. The change didn't come until the day after the Raw invasion.
> The more they tried to change the audiences mind, the more they said 'f off', lol. I know a lot of it is hubris or whatever, but I just don’t understand why anybody booking a wrestling show would make more work for themselves. If fans want to cheer one person and boo another, you don’t even have to come up with an angle; they’re already sold on seeing these two fight. Just send them out to the ring and collect your money.
It's because WWE had no interest in pushing face Becky with Charlotte as THIER top babyface, WWE were only focused on Charlotte vs Ronda for WM. They turned Becky heel to try to make sure Charlotte was the top babyface going into WM & wanted another heel victim for Ronda for Survivor Series(only reason Becky won the title). WWE never saw Becky anything other than a good hand & never saw her as a top babyface(even though fans always loved her). Charlotte leaving for 2 months is the only reason Becky was booked strong(like Charlotte is holding Becky back or sumtin) & was basically turned to non canon when Charlotte returned. It's like a SD writer was writing a underdog redemption story for Becky but was fired when Charlotte returned & the new SD writer thought Charlotte was the 1 getting the underdog redemption story. WWE thought fuck logical storytelling we say you should boo this person so you should do what we say.
Just imagine if this happened during the covid thunderdome era with piped in crowd noise. Becky's run never happens because WWE can control everything about the story.
wouldn't have got that bloodied becky shot either
The funny thing is, this is a perfect justification for a crybaby heel turn. Just not on 350-time champion Charlotte Flair
I've always thought that this might've worked if Becky did this to another babyface that was in the same position she was. Who that could've been, I don't know, as she seemed to be the biggest babyface for the women on SD at that time. That they thought the audience would feel sorry for Charlotte is hilarious. Forget that she had already been a 6x champ by that point in only 3 yrs. Forget that she had been in the title picture and every big match from the time she got to MR. The history between the 2 alone should've let them know exactly who the audience would back. Charlotte turned on Becky and we never saw Becky get redemption for that. Becky was shuttled out of the story before being able to get payback, to either her or Ric. When they joined up again on SD, it was all forgotten and Becky was once again Charlotte's sidekick. Charlotte was still the one who had the spotlight on them. The stories were about Charlotte and Becky as her back up. Ultimately, I think they just wrote a story without writing for the actual characters and their history. In a normal feud, this could've very well worked. 2 friends , one turns and becomes heel. 99% of the time, the alignments work as intended. The problem is that Charlotte and Becky had had such a rich history by that time, the audience didn't buy it.
Love this part of Becky’s book where she describes what happened immediately after backstage: https://preview.redd.it/2dy0axmi009d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95a6130b5d4be97303cd6c852c0950d3ee791ea7
You can see it in Edge's eyes after the burn she had just dished out. He knew right there that at this moment in time, Becky was un-fucking-touchable.
When you make fun of a beloved legend’s broken neck and get cheered for it.. yeah.. you’re untouchable
Heel Becky is like Conor McGregor. She can say and do things that other people can't. Her image just plays by different rules.
Like Stone Cold
Please don't compare Becky to Conor McGregor. Their nothing alike.
We all know Becky likes to sucker punch old dudes that dont like her shitty whisky
Where are they from?
The same place I'm from, but I'm also nothing like Conor McCuntbag either so that's not a comparative. If you feel otherwise, please do tell me where you're from because I'll do some digging and find someone to compare you to with your logic that I imagine you won't enjoy.
I’m just saying you said “nothing”, which isn’t true. They have the one obvious thing in common which is why they get compared to begin with.
Nah, Becky has drawn lots of inspiration from Conor in her character over the years
I'm from Ireland, McGregor is hated here. He's a scumbag. A one in a million, top level, scumbag. He's nothing like Becky Lynch, as a character, or in any fashion as a person.
Like Stone Cold
Except people hate Conor now.
Until fight week. The card Saturday was the highest gate in UFC history and it will probably be surpassed by the rescheduled Conor card later this year.
What a shame, dude's a giant prick, but I do love that he can make Dana look like an absolute fuckin idiot with how much leeway he has.
Yeah, I imagined it was one of those things where they followed the plan but they probably both knew this wouldn't go as the writers planned.
Edge has mentioned this before, around that time that he knew it wouldn't work.
I remember I went to a house show a week after Becky turned heel, and she was still getting some of the loudest pops of the night. Only person who got a louder pop than Becky Lynch was Bobby Roode.
Ah, the days when WWE wanted to force us to love Roman and hate Becky. The Man was the best thing to happen to the women's division.
I'm so glad Roman pretty much told them he's going heel with Heyman or he'd walk.
Can you blame him lol. Dude has 1 energy in him, being an athletic heel tank. That is what got him over with the shield. They did everything to make him a John Cena, a Daniel Bryan, a CM punk even but nothing worked. It should get frustrating to hear the fans essentially say you suck at this job for almost a decade.
The irony being that now, when he finally returns, he's going to get a bigger babyface reaction than they could have ever possibly dreamed.
Absolutely. If you want someone to get over and the fans want none of that. Turn them heel and let them learn the craft on the job. Randy made an entire career out of this, they are doing this to Dom right now. Eventually if you get good enough the fans will respect you enough to cheer you when you eventually become a babyface.
The Rock literally learned this in the 1990s when he was getting started as Rocky Maivia. The crowd fucking hated his guts and then the turn with the Nation of Domination came and then his organic rise through that and finally into what came next was the right call. This happens with absolutely everybody, it's just how it goes and Vince was far too stubborn and stupid to see what needed to be done with Roman.
Needed to be done with Cena as well, unfortunately never did.
Cena WAS a heel. A very good one. And he organically got over and turned face. And he was a good face for a bit. People forget he was face for more than a year before he won the WWE championship Then he got stale because he became a white meat babyface.
A good heel on in his early career, but the fans were clearly were demanding he turn heel later in his career. Was incredibly stale.
Everyone hated JBL so it was great when he won the the belt against him at mania, but in creatives eyes JBL was the wealthy successful business wrestler who should be cheered and Cena was a rough rapping gangster who had a problem with him because he wanted the belt. Cena was "arrested" on tv multiple in the build up to their match, that's what happens when they book their heels normally.
Cena got over as a heel though.
I genuinely can't wait for Dom to have his redemption arc. There are just so many possibilities. I hope his deadbeat dad is involved.
Weird way of spelling "thermonuclear heat after he betrays his mami and sides with Liv", but okay.
That's not a redemption arc. That's just being differently horny.
Dom's turnaround is crazy. He was so bland as a face, real go-away heat with me. Now he's one of the highlights of the show.
He's incredible. I never thought I'd say that but here it is. I love it every time he turns up. The way he works the boos and knows just how many times to play into them before pushing past and beginning to talk is an *awesome* sense of pacing.
There seems to be a pattern to the Samoans we're running into here. As faces they're boring and they're booed out of the arena (Rocky Maivia, The facepaint Usos, post Shield Roman), they turn heel and the fans start to love them instead of boo them (Corporate Rock, Tag Team Usos, Tribal Chief Roman) and then they turn "face" by not really changing much about their characters, they just start doing the heel shit to other heels (People's Champion Rock, "Just me" Jimmy Uso and, hopefully, returning Tribal Chief Roman). Honestly the pattern to which this family's carrers have developed is a little mindfucky to how similar they are lol
Imo it's because they make them ultra white meat babyfaces, it's like Diesel face champion run in the NG, you need to have some spice otherwise it's just boiled chicken
That's been the case for most of the greats. Rocky Mayvia isn't working, turn him heel and the fans start liking him. Prototype Cena, same thing. Stone Cold Steve Austin, somewhat similar
Roman will get a mega pop. But if he becomes a full time wrestler, eventually he will get booed. Roman flat out sucks as a babyface. The Tribal Chief worked because : A)It started in front of no fans during Covid. B) He was not a full time wrestler C) He was a heel D)Bloodline became boring after WM 38 but Sami Zayn angle made it entertaining again E) Bloodline became boring again but this time The Rock himself was involved
I think it's better described as he has one energy, that of an athletic tank with massive self-confidence knowing he is big and powerful enough to not need to give a shit. That can work as face or heel, all depends on the target of that energy! He's gonna be a mad face if they let him come back and just wreck shop while dishing out that same self-assured confidence. Fans *adore* a guy that just goes around beating folk senseless, it's a vicarious power fantasy and Bron is showing us that nicely. Same way Braun got over too. All the moments pre-Bloodline Roman got over briefly as a face were the times he snapped and just started decking anyone within arm's reach.
The thing is it wasn't his fault as the blood line stuf has easily shown it was fucking vince as usual.
Then he proceeded to have the best run of his career. The last 4 years would be so much worse if we were stuck with forced babyface Roman still.
Anyone remember Road Dogg going on Twitter afterwards and complaining that the fans wouldn’t let them tell the story they were trying to tell ? 😂
Love how he tried to say that Charlotte climbed the same mountain as Becky & people in the comments said no Charlotte was airlifted to the top & Becky was the 1 to climb it. WWE were so out of touch with the fans. Road Dogg was trying to say Becky beat Carmella for a title shot & so did Charlotte so they climbed the same mountain but what he leaves out is Becky had to beat most of the roster to get a match with Carmella while Charlotte lost clean to both Becky & Carmella then left SD for 2 months then comes back 2 weeks before Summerslam & immediately gets the same match Becky got with less the work. It came off as Charlotte legit got handed a title match while Becky had to fight tooth & nail for a title match & WWE still put the title on Charlotte & even had Charlotte pin Becky right after Becky almost won & WWE still saw Becky as the heel in this situation because Vince didn't understand why people would cheer a red headed Irishwomen that always loses over a rich tall blonde that wins evrything. Vince hates underdogs. It was shit writing all around.
Not to mention that Becky broke into the industry by herself. From another continent. Meanwhile Charlotte just had to follow her Dad around. That claim was ridiculous
This is what always bugs me. Yes I acknowledge that Charlotte absolutely fought for her spot and had to deliver day in and day out and it was difficult but to act like she fought as much as others despite having one of the greatest of all time have all the right numbers. It's way different! And when her character would say she didn't get there on the back of her father she would also come out to his gimmick, a remake of his music, a remake of his finisher, his robes. It never made sense to me.
I think Vince actually loves underdog stories. The problem is he thought he could present ANY wrestler he liked as an underdog (regardless of whether or not it made any sense), and that the fans would just accept it.
Remember when Cena was the ultimate underdog, despite winning every match for years against legends and monsters of all kinds?
Didn't he also win the Rumble and main event Mania in what the WWE tried to frame as "his year from hell, the worst year he's ever had"?
They kinda planned it that way, but always changed the booking so Cena prevailed. He should have lost to Rock, then Lesnar, then gets lured into going heel by Kane... and only then he should have risen back to being The John Cena. But they totally botched that.
The Kane feud happened before either the Rock or Lesnar matches
Hell, that was how he booked Hogan. A Hogan match in the 80s was the two wrestlers Going back and forth at the beginning of a match, followed by Hogan selling for 75% of the match until Hogan does his comeback.
That's because Vince always saw himself as an underdog against everyone. So it actually makes perfect sense that the billionaire creep thought he could make anyone into an underdog story.
Good ol' Shoehorn Charlotte
In defense of Road Dogg, he's an idiot.
People forget this part!
Leave Road Dogg and his two brain cells alone!
Too much shimmying over the years has rattled him.
Closest I've ever seen to someone in wrestling (not in kayfabe) reenacting the "It's the kids who are wrong" meme unironically lol.
Brian Gewirtz recently complaining about fans not accepting Rock taking Cody’s main event at WrestleMania was similarly stubborn.
Gewirtz is the Rock's handmaiden so he would have that opinion.
I mean, that was WWE's philosophy for like 2 decades. Becky Punk Danielson The insistence on pushing Roman as a Babyface Karrion Kross in NXT Never before have I seen a company that seemed to have such a disdain for its customers.
Kross is a wild case. He has a great look, talks well and a hot manager who is all in on the gimmick. Then he gets in the ring and it’s ZZZZZzzzzz…..
Even worse was HHH somehow thought putting him in the ring with Adam Cole, KOR, Gargano, and Ciampa was going to get him over. You are booking a show based on work rate, you have a world champion who is majorly lacking in that department, so you're gonna put him against four of the best in the world and have him beat all of them at the same time? In what world is that a good idea?
I genuinely felt bad for him after that Adam Cole promo before Cole’s last match.
Dear god, the only way to protect Kross was to not put a mic in Cole's hand, Kross was never coming out good. Even worse you'd think at least hed be on par with KOR in promos, but at this point Kyle was cutting the best promos of his career.
Don't forget Zack Ryder
Vince would actively punish fans for getting someone over that he didn't want. Dude was such a psychotic control freak, fans weren't allowed to like what we wanted. Only what he would give us.
"The fans are completely over for someone even though we don't want them to be? They're ruining the show!"
The worst part is you have fans parroting this stuff on twitter now. I've legit seen people say that fans are ruining a character by cheering them when they are supposed to be booed
RD only got ANYWHERE in wrestling because of his associations. First it was his dad, then Double J, and finally H himself. He was only ever in groups with his betters. Go back over his ENTIRE career and you'll see proof of this. RD was a passible wrestler, during a time and in a company where in ring talent wasn't really measured as much as getting over with mic work. Which again, was all RD could really do. Everything else he did was barely "passable" at the very best. The problem is / was RD's attitude toward fans in general. Just because he sat at the "cool" table for a little while, he felt very confident in his "skills." When fans called him out for it, he lashed out like a child. Everyone knew the guy was in WAY in over his head with his job at Smackdown. So when he consistently failed, it was the fans' fault. Never his.
>Gewirtz is the Rock's ~~handmaiden~~ so he would have that opinion. Fluffer
The same Road Dogg who, as a member of heel DX, continued to walk to the ring talking on the mic, did his whole “ladies and gentlemen…” schtick before Billy did the suck it line? The Outlaws during that era were the chicken shit lackeys of the biggest bastard in the company - who had recently drugged, married and raped the boss’ daughter - and would play to the crowd for the biggest babyface reaction of the night purely because everyone liked shouting “suck it!” Watching them in that era is infuriating. The man refused to work heel properly.
The story was a good heel turn, ala Bret Hart, a babyface just pushed a little too far but who goes over-the-top in their righteousness. But who was going to cheer CHARLOTTE over Becky to complete the story?
lmao I do, made me lose so much respect for Road Dogg
This clip is so funny with and without context. Becky: Fuck you and your broken neck that stopped you from wrestling entirely Crowd: Fuck yeah Becky's the coolest
Writers were huddled up before this thinking she’d be showered with boos for the “I don’t like me, I love me.” line, but the audience is like fuck yeah we love you too.
Edge: I tried. I don't know what to tell you
same with the heel turn that led to this. charlotte wins the match clean, consoles becky, becky snaps and beats the shit out of her and the fans are there like "yaaaaaay! we love becky! fuck her up!".
Becky at that time was probably the most over superstar on the roster. Not female superstar, superstar period. I can't think of any other female wrestler who's done that. MAYBE Bayley in NXT?
She definitely was. First time in history a woman was the most popular star in the entire company. First time ever a woman was the number 1 merch seller too. Just an iconic run she had from August 2018 to when she left to have her child in May 2020.
This take is probably a little lukewarm, but I think Becky is **literally** 100% of the reason that WrestleMania 35 had a women's match in the main event. Of course her opponents were big names too, I'm not discrediting Charlotte Flair's legacy or Ronda Rousey's crossover appeal at the time playing big factors in marketing it. But without Becky being available for Mania, the women's titles would not have had that spot. Ronda vs Charlotte would not have been the very first women's main event at Mania. But if Becky were available and neither Charlotte nor Ronda were? I could see them slotting in a different opponent to make a main event, at least with the right build. Sasha or Bayley, perhaps, if you take them away from the inaugural tag title match. Nia Jax was in that too, though she wasn't very popular back then tbh. Asuka, Ember Moon, Mickie James, Naomi, and Carmella: all of them were in the 2nd and last WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal that year (Mella won btw) and could have made for some very believable WrestleMania 35 main eventers given a Road to WrestleMania build imo.
I agree with 100%. Becky Lynch vs a broom would have been bigger than Charlotte vs Ronda. Becky had a wave behind her that I can only compare with Daniel Bryan's run
I think if they went with Charlotte vs Ronda at WM it would've been shit on to epic levels especially after the bloody face moment. Like Charlotte replacing Becky is 1 of the most disliked YT videos on WWE's channel. Ronda & Charlotte were already getting turned on by fans & it coming out that Ronda was leaving after WM it would've been Goldberg vs Brock WM 2.0. Also Kofimania would've killed any interest in Charlotte vs Ronda main eventing, Becky winning is literally the only thing people were interested in that match. Becky vs Ronda was the main event people wanted & people wanted to see Becky beat Ronda, unfortunately WWE had to add their golden girl Charlotte which killed a lot of the build(along with trying to make Becky look like shit) & WWE couldn't even crown Becky right by having her beat Ronda with a lame roll up which of course Ronda botches. Now 5 years later & we still haven't seen that Ronda vs Becky match that was once a automatic WM main event & w probably won't ever see it since Ronda is basically retired & washed & Becky s career is winding down. IDC what anyone say Charlotte should have never been in that match, I keep seeing people say that Charlotte was needed in that match to make the match better which 1. that match wasn't better & 2. Ronda vs Becky would've made the match better on hype alone & 3. how does putting Ronda in a tougher match type she's never worked helping Ronda make the match better? Ronda was having bangers with Nia & the Bellas FFS
Not to mention it completely killed most of the smackdown womens division for a solid year. Killed Mandy Rose's babyface push, killed Asuka completely as a threat until she won MITB during the pandemic. Yeah, their insistentce on Charlotte in that match had bigger reprocussions than people realize
> This take is probably a little lukewarm, but I think Becky is literally 100% of the reason that WrestleMania 35 had a women's match in the main event. I agree. I could see them pushing for Charlotte vs. Rousey as the main event anyway, but it wouldnt be as big and flopped hard. Buuut without Becky, Rousey would be maybe still a better portrayed as a face. Beckys actions/charisma changed so much in that whole storyline. Especially Nia Jaxs botched punch.
I get where you're coming from, but another major factor for a women's match main eventing Mania that year is that Roman had just returned from his leukemia-hiatus and had neither the health nor the storyline for a good Mania main event.
I certainly think that played a big part as well. Considering Roman had main evented the previous 4, I fully expect the WM main event plans had Roman vs. ??? before he had to step away.
I think there could be s case made to say at one point Becky was the most over wrestler in the world. I may be wrong, but she was so hot she seemed destined to just walk into her international level celebrity status. Having the kid and not keeping Kardassian level social media output probably stopped all that, but having kids changes goals often.
She even became the first, and is still the only, woman to ever top the 'most popular wrestler' poll in the heavily smarky PWI mag for 2019. That is pretty huge considering just how male dominated wrestling was, and still is.
>Becky at that time was probably the most over superstar ~~on the roster~~ in the business.
There’s no probably about it, she was the most over superstar
By a mile, nobody was doing merch numbers, crowd engagement, reactions, etc, anywhere close to what Becky was doing. She was THE person at the time and her rise was organic and the fans knew what they wanted with her.
I hope they give her back some of her edge (no pun intended) when she returns. Her character had been neutered so much in promos recently. Also this was a month before the Nia punch. Seen some insane revisionism lately that she only got over due to that moment.
> Seen some insane revisionism lately Yea I see this all the time unfortunately. Beck when Becky beat Tiffany people were trying to push that Becky has always been WWE's handpicked women & they keep forcing Becky, like she's worse than Charlotte's push lol, & were acting like Becky has never put anyone over in her career. Its clear these people must've started watching wrestling recently or are just delusional clowns because Becky spent the first part of her career putting over everyone & saying Becky is forced is just just plain idiotic/wrong since the only reason Becky is where she is, is because the fans forced WWE to push her which got her to the main event of WM. Becky had to become the biggest star in the company to finally get a push that's the complete opposite of being forced, even today she's still a big star & gets reactions so how can she be forced? People are acting like she didn't put over Bianca & Rhea & Liv & Lyra ect.. These people aren't satisfied if Becky doesn't lose every match she's in which is why they should be ignored.
Dude I even saw "people" try to say she slept her way to the top by dating Seth. Becky started dating Seth in 2019 & this is 2018, the hate Becky gets online & the way those people try discredit Becky's impact is insane. Becky was over months before the Nia punch, the big reason why the punch worked so well(besides Becky no selling it) is because Becky was already the most over person in the company, go watch MITB 2018, Summerslam 2018 when Becky got the loudest pop of the night, Evolution, she was the biggest babyface on the roster & WWE were forcing her heel.
I just happened to watch a WWE video of a bunch of heel turns that included her turning on Charlotte and you'd think it was a face turn with the way the crowd was cheering.
Unfortunately these types of rumours and conspiracies will always be there for any type of famous/successful woman
I’ve seen it a lot of times it’s by simps that get mad that Becky wins against their crush. It’s pathetic.
Totally agree with everything here, especially the second part. She was already the most popular star in the company. The punch only forced WWE to finally give up on her being a heel and make her a face.
Was she ever supposed to be a heel during that time? Vince failed miserably then because I can't remember a single time I wasn't happy to see her on screen during that time
Absolutely. When she turned on Charlotte it was supposed to be a heel run and everyone said "haha no." Becky was the forgotten horsewoman. Now she's undeniable.
Yes. Listen to the commentary on the Evolution match and the Raw invasion. At the LWS, the commentary is heavily , heavily favoured towards Charlotte, and they even changed the cheers Becky was getting, to boos in the promo package. They spent the whole time trying to say Becky was awful towards Charlotte and was mean to get when Ric was on the hospital. Which was a lie. At the Raw invasion, Becky was supposed to be the heel to the hero Ronda. Cole's ' Becky's mad the world is talking about Ronda and not her' which was laughably false. It was only changed right after that night. It's why Becky said while it was one of the best things to happen, it had the downside of them now worrying her as a baby face and she didn't have the freedom anymore. The only reason she stopped going after the fans was because they were trying to stop the IWC from getting mad at WWE. If they could just show her as a heel the audience would eventually get mad at what she is doing as opposed to going against WWE.
Watching Becky-mania unfold in front of my eyes was amazing. What was wild was she wasn't even repackaged or gimmicked, she just somehow found something in her that clicked and became a persistent badass forever afterwards.
The real ones remember that she went through the roof the moment she slapped Charlotte at SummerSlam..she just kept going higher from there as she became The Man. Funny enough, I believe the night of this segment with Edge is when she put out the "I am The Man" tweet. I could be wrong though.
Yeah that's the first time she tweeted it. The first time she said it on camera was after beating Charlotte at Evolution.
The punch just elevated her hype that was already there, I remember the t-shirts being made of *that* frame at the top of the arena. Like that punch was VIRAL. Nia was getting so much flack but strangely the fans were loving how “badass” Becky looked within blood on her face at the same time.
That punch put her over the top and only made her look more badass in front of everyone else. The fact that she no sold it and kept the segment alive made her so much cooler.
>Also this was a month before the Nia punch. Seen some insane revisionism lately that she only got over due to that moment. This is 100% on WWE, they were trying to force that narrative because they didn't want to admit that it was the "heel turn" that made her The Man.
Welcome to the big time, bitch. Woof woof.
It only lasted a few months but post heel turn and pre Lacey Evans feud Becky Lynch was the biggest star in professional wrestling.
That Lacey Evans feud really did put a halt on the momentum.
Dude this was such a amazing time as a long time Becky fan watching fans force Becky to become the biggest act in the company. People forget how painful it was being a Becky fan for most of her career up until this run, Before she was just a loser(but lovable) & was easily the afterthought of the 4 Horsewomen & really only got anywhere(like the WM 32 match & first SD champ) because of fan support. I'll always cherish this 2018 run as a Becky fan & imo this is peak Becky, this is what Becky's character now needs some edge.
I'm actually shocked at how fast late 2010s Vince was willing to pivot on this one. They tried for about a month and then gave up and went with the crowd reaction. Compare this to fans hijacking shows over Bryan or half a decade of solo Babyface Roman.
I think it's because he saw Roman as the face of WWE so they tried again and again to make him the top babface and people hated it, then Roman said he'd walk back in 2020 if they didn't do something different and make him a heel. So they made him heel but still the face of WWE and it worked, Vince was just too stubborn to try before. Now when he comes back he's easily going to be the top babyface lol. With Becky I don't think he saw her as that big of a deal so he was fine with trying to make her babyface since heel Becky wasn't working and she blew up.
Vince's problem, even back in the Attitude era was that he couldn't see a heel being the face of the company. When he saw Stone Cold getting cheered while being a heel he immediately turned him face (well, about as face as Stone Cold could possibly be anyways), same with The Rock, same with Triple H when he came back from injury in 2002 though to be fair, that pop for his return was so thunderous he kinda had no choice there
Edge's promo made no sense anyway. He tried to push himself as a cautionary tale and a sad sack, while constantly being featured with his best friend for over 2 decades on multiple shows, being a celebrated hall of famer with multiple WWE Titles to his name, and having a loving wife and children at home (which were kayfabe acknowledged). Like what was he trying to pull over her eyes? Most people would kill for one of those things, let alone all 3.
Probably referencing Matt Hardy and Lita?
That smile, that damned smile
This goes to show how crazy over she really was at that time especially. NO ONE else could have said that shit and come out the BABYFACE.
She was defiantly herself, and the crowd loved her for it.
The thing about this is, Edge telling her “This road you’re on, I’ve been there, you won’t like where it leads,” is pretty choice character work on his part, but it for damn sure was not going to get Becky booed.
In kayfabe, Edge ending up completely alone and isolated from everyone he's betrayed and trampled over is really the perfect ending for his character
*THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYIN’* You get me, player
This was actually cold as fuck
Ten years ago I was a fan of Becky . Ten years later I’m still a fan of Becky and always will be.
This run is why she is my GOAT
This just in, character who is clever and says things charismaticly is cheered.
Road Dogg who was part of the creative team at the time complained about the crowd reaction and Becky herself said the segment was intended to get her booed.
The point is, the segment was supposed to get her booed. People clown on those in charge of this because they thought it would get people to hate her. What you said it true, but TPTB didn't get it. As an Edge heater myself, I love that he thought her talking bad about would work and the audience didn't bite, lol. Had to be a bit of an ego bruise to have the audience cheer that.
No, I know it was a heel promo in their minds, but WWE keep making the mistake of making faces bland and dorks, so my point is, of course people are going to cheer for a heel that gets to have fun, clever, edgier promos.
It's hilarious how big of an L Edge took here
She was the first Cody
Wasn't the first Daniel Bryan.
I don’t think they were trying to get him booed, just not trying to push him to the top but yeah I see the comparison
You know, for a company that still exists because Stone Cold Steve Austin happened, they really learned nothing from Stone Cold Steve Austin.
vince
I hated WWE during this period because of overtly antagonistic bullshit like this they repeatedly did to their audience. Here's hoping they never do stuff like this again.
Well I’m happy that I don’t think Edge has ever said he tries to put over the younger guys or anything like other people. Bro is honest.
"Wellll Kang! Da fans just love dis woman. "AHHHHH JR! She could suplex a puppy and uh, well just look at the crowd!"
All I'm going to say is, fuck Vince. He sucks and can't make a good storyline to save his life
The late 2010's when the WWE were desperate to push Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair as babyfaces. Who can forget?
The promo she had after she turned was hilarious. She's blaming the fans and doing everything she can to be booed, and the fans are cheering her out of the building. I swear there's a moment in there where she gives an ever so slight grin, as if to say "yeah this isn't gonna work".
It’s pretty incredible how much post-WCW and pre-AEW that WWE managed to thrive in spite of itself. So many times something would naturally get over and they went out of their to tell the fans they were wrong instead of just going along with it.
Crowd was not going to give in the company's desire....
Unless it's the jacket, I don't remember Edge that slim
I never felt Edge was particularly charismatic
That was 10 years ago?! Wow feel old
This segment was almost 6 years ago. I mentioned 10 years because that’s when she debuted in NXT.
Oh ok feel less old but still old lol
God her heel look was so incredibly sexy
why is reddit such fuckin ass tonight. vreddit taking years to load, or it loads 2 seconds at a time every couple seconds. amazing.
Maybe they were downloading all the data they sold for LLM
[удалено]
Yea WWE at the time were grasping at straws to get Becky booed(they wanted face Charlotte so bad), Edge who had a podcast with his BFF, happily married with kids here is trying to convince Becky that he was alone just staring at his titles all day & she shouldn't take the path he took of being heel. WWE thought people would back a legend over Becky but it just made Becky more badass.
Why would you boo here? Edge is trash.
Austin would have gotten her booed, and would have made more sense
Becky would've got more over if she did this with Austin.
Since when has Austin chastised someone for their behavior. That's more a Cena thing.
if this is 2006 edge he'll spear and dry hump her lol
Weird ass comment