Becky Lynch Is a Bloody Assassin [UPDATE]

Since WrestleMania in April, the WWE slate has been lackluster. This is partly bad luck attributable to harrowing real-world circumstances as their champion and long-groomed face of the company Roman Reigns was diagnosed with cancer. However, WWE has also had a lot of lazy, illogical writing as evidenced by their abject failure to provide a payoff to the storyline of Rusev, their most popular performer in the first half of the year. But there’s one thing that has gone very right, and that is the emergence of Becky Lynch as a bourgeoning mega-star.

Since Becky turned on her “best friend” Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam, she has been on an absolute tear. She’s perfect at straddling the line of surreality, connecting with wrestling fans in their weird multi-dimensional world where the basic, surface-level mores of good and bad are no longer enough to dictate cheers and boos (and really haven’t been for 20+ years).

After vanquishing Charlotte, at least for the time being, Becky has been feuding with Ronda Rousey. Because the turnaround between WWE Evolution (the company’s first women’s PPV) and Survivor Series this upcoming Sunday was just a couple of weeks, there hasn’t been SO much time for storyline development. Nevertheless, in that time Becky has been dominating the build both on the microphone and on social media.

Last night on Raw (video at top of post), Becky took it to a new level. Leading an “invasion” of SmackDown’s women against Raw’s, Becky ambushed Rousey backstage and later proceeded to drill her with several chairshots. At some point during the fracas, Becky sustained what sure appears to be a broken nose, yet remained fully in-character as a conquering badass.

Look: We all know that Ronda Rousey would dismember Becky Lynch in a real fight. But pro wrestling isn’t real fighting. There are any number of tricks they can write into a match to even the odds, whether that be cheapshots with foreign objects or interference from other wrestlers when the ref’s back is turned.

Stephanie McMahon always talks about how they listen to the fans, but what this often means is listening to them and then trolling them with a result that they despise. Obviously this is all fake, but there is supposed to be a meritocracy where the performers who draw the most emotion from the fans get rewarded with wins. To be fair, that’s what’s been happening with Becky the last couple months, but this is an exception as opposed to the rule of the last few years.

If WWE has any respect for its fans, they will figure out a way for Lynch to beat Rousey on Sunday in a way that involves these types of shenanigans, thus preserving Becky’s red-hot run while not diminishing Rousey’s credibility.

UPDATE: is reportingWell, this stinks. Fightful.com that Becky Lynch sustained head injuries last night and is out of Survivor Series.