Becky Lynch on Ronda Rousey Controversy, Becoming THE MAN, Punching Dom In The Face!
Becky Lynch on Ronda Rousey Controversy, Becoming THE MAN, Punching Dom In The Face!
Becky Lynch (@beckylynchwwe) is a New York Times bestselling author and a professional wrestler with WWE. She joins Chris Van Vliet in Philadelphia, PA to talk about her new book called "Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl", becoming a New York Times bestselling author, balancing her career in the WWE with being a mom to her daughter Roux, her favorite stories about her husband Seth Rollins, not remembering anything from the night she became "The Man" and got punched in the face by Nia Jax, her viral moment when she knocked out Dominik Mysterio, main eventing WrestleMania 35, Ronda Rousey refusing to tap out, being part of the "Triple H Era" of WWE and much more.
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On the book feeling like Becky Lynch is telling the stories:
"Yeah, because I sat there wrote it and told you these stories. Yeah. And so that's what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be something where people wanted to turn the page and it was an easy read an enjoyable read, the people could kind of get lost in for a few hours. Because it's such an undertaking to ask somebody to pick up a book and read it, because you have to cut everything out, you have to just take the time to pick it up to read. And so if I'm asking people to do that, I want to make sure that it's good."
On who inspired Becky Lynch:
"Mick Foley. Hence why I wanted to be the author of my own book. And because Mick was the person who I would see my brother be watching, wrestling, and walk past the TV, I'm like, Oh, don't you know, that's all fake, like, I was the worst. And, and my brother was like it's gotten really good. And then I'd see it Mick on the TV. I'm like, wow, the way he talked and the presence that he had, he was so captivating. And then, you know, I could relate to him, because I was this kid who had been teased for being overweight and felt like I didn't fit in, he wasn't the typical superstar. And, and I could relate to that, you know, when he said, like, I can't jump high, but I can jump off of high places. So everything about him spoke to me. And also we just look like such a good person. And then over the years have gotten to Nome. And you know, whoever says don't meet your heroes, their hero wasn't Mick Foley, because he's so great. Like, when I told him I was writing, I wrote a draft, which wasn't very good, I would say. And he went through it. And first of all, he was so complimentary, so encouraging, that I had a voice that I had a unique voice that needed to use my voice. And then the other thing was, he spent six hours on the phone, just going line by line through the book, picking out, even stuff like where I should have put a comma. And I was like, Oh, well, the copy editor will pick all that up. But like, he just took that time because he cares so much."
On where the process began:
"I mean, it started back in 2020. I was pregnant, the world was shut down. Well, might as well start. I just started writing, and it was just like, word vomit onto a page, like no censoring myself in any capacity, just let me get words down onto the page. And then I'd reach a certain point, and I'd kind of get stuck, and then I leave it for months on end. And then I'd come back and I'd start again from the beginning. I would do this process over and over again, until like 2022 was right as I was having that match with Bianca at WrestleMania. And I decided to take a writing course. Then it took a year long writing course. And there was some stuff with my book deal where nobody had given me a deadline. And it turned out to like, just coincidentally, the deadline ended up being right at the end of the book course. And so it worked out perfectly that now I had accountability. I could do it. And so within that year, I ended up handing in a draft. And then I had problems with editors where one editor just disappeared, and then there was another editor and we didn't click so much And then I got this other editor, Rebecca Strobel. And she was amazing. She was amazing. So I sent her off the draft. And then she came back with a bunch of questions. And then I read it for the first time, read it back in one thing, and I was like, Oh, I hate this. I hate this. And then I scrapped the whole thing and rewrote it in like about five weeks. Yeah. So that's a very long story about how long the process took but like, you know, it kind of took within three years, but also took five weeks."
What was difficult to write?
"Anything with WWE I thought needed to be handled with great care. Because I don't think you can absent-mindedly write about people that are in the public eye. You have to have a good representation of them and an accurate representation of them. And so I wanted to detail everything very honestly, very factually, without letting my bias come into play. Like when was I the asshole? I need to own that. Let me try and see the other person's point of view, because these people are in the public eye and you want to represent them in the way that is most honest. And here's another thing that Mick Foley told me, never use a book to get back at anybody. Like, never use it as a revenge tool, they don't have the chance to defend themselves. And I took that as I'm going to be the hero of my own story, right? If you're reading this, I'm likely painting myself as the hero of my story. It's not fair for me to paint anybody as a villain, especially somebody who doesn't have the chance to respond. So I really wanted to handle all of that stuff with care."
On her first date with Seth Rollins:
"I don't know what counts as that. Maybe it was Bring Me the Horizon in the Forum in LA. I think that was our first kind of official date because it was right before the Royal Rumble and he showed me this song by Bring Me the Horizon. I'd never heard of them before. I'm like, I love this song. And allegedly it reminded him of me. And he was like, look at how different they are. And he showed me their other stuff. So then we got to go. See them live. And pretty soon after. And that was cool. Look at us now, married with a 3-year-old."
On how being a mom has changed her career:
"It's complicated. Because there's both, you just want to spend time with your kid. I've gone [away] and she's gone don’t leave me Mama, don't leave me and especially, you know, the last week with the book tour, and then this week is crazy because it's Wrestlemania. And then we've got a lot of tours coming up. And we were in Perth. And so we had to leave her in and stuff like, that is so hard. It's so hard. And like, I have to remind myself that my mom was also a flight attendant, she was gone, but I don't remember her being gone. I just remember her being present. I remember her always making cakes for the bake sale. I remember snuggling with her. I don't remember the absence of her, I just remember the presence of her. And so I need to remember that whenever I'm feeling. But I feel so lucky that I still get the part of me that was me before I became a mother. Because you changed so much. And you become a new person, your priorities switch. And that's an adjustment for a lot of women, I think maybe every woman, because you now have a new identity. And sometimes you lose that person that you were before. And you almost have to in a way and I've talked to other people, like you have to grieve the person that you were before. And it's an amazing thing and it's a wonderful thing to be a mother. But you also in some ways miss that person you were before I get to keep that. And I get to still keep that thing that, you know made me feel like me the thing that I love, and I get to have my daughter so I feel so lucky."
On her most perfect wrestling match:
"[There’s] definitely no such thing. Oh my gosh, there's no such thing. I really loved the match that Trish and I had. That was one where I didn't leave going ah! Because even, like I'm thinking of all my favourite matches, like Charlotte at Evolution, there was still some things where I was going ah. Bianca at WrestleMania 38, one of my favourite matches of all time that I've had. There were still times when I was like ah, I kicked her right in the face, you know what I mean? Like stuff like that. That maybe ended up making it better but sometimes that's also the thing, not that kicking Bianca right in the face and giving her a massive black eye made a better, maybe more brutal, but obviously I apologised. But sometimes the flaws in things that make them better make them give them that great [feeling]. I don't like pristine things. I like a little bit of grit and roughness, especially in a wrestling match. I don't like everything to look clean and perfect and crisp. It shouldn't, it's a scrap. I love a scrap. I love a match with a scrap."
On the end of WrestleMania 35:
"I was in the moment. But I couldn't see it. But the discourse afterwards, and also the sound of the audience made it seem like something had gone wrong. But obviously, at the time, I wasn't aware. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that was intentional, or accidental. I could see the motivation for it being intentional, like, oh well, this will be my out to get a second match. You know what I mean? In the long game, or could have just been accidental."
On the original finish being Ronda submitting:
"Well, so that the creative that was laid out. So she had her driver take her to the wrong spot. And so she showed up, I think, like an hour [late], and we'd been talking through stuff. And TJ, our producer, an amazing producer, TJ Wilson. I've known him since 2006. And we were road-tripping across Canada and into Washington and Portland. It's a wild journey. And anyway, he's like, maybe you have Rhonda in an armbar, she looks like she's about to tap out. And so Ronda comes and we tell her the creative and say and then you're almost about to tap out. [Ronda says] Oh no, my mom wouldn't look me in the eye or talk to me again if I looked like I was about to tap out. All right, well, she's probably not going to tap out on the finish. So you know, she never tapped out in her career. So I understood it, respected it and moved on quickly. I was gonna win two titles in the main event of WrestleMania. It was not a big deal whether she tapped out or not. It was I was winning and she was doing the honours."
On WWE being hot right now:
"I think it is the leadership that we have right now and that things are thought out. Because it was no secret that before the show would be rewritten as it was going on. I talked about it in the book. It wasn't unheard of for them to have a show on paper and we'd show up and Vince would tear it up and we'd start from scratch and then at 6 pm Your creative changes. And then you're like, oh, okay, well, what are we doing? And it didn't always play off of what we had done last week. And now with Hunter in charge, he has a vision. He sees it through and that's what you need for a TV show. You know what I mean? You don't start filming Succession episode one without knowing where you're going in episode 5. So I think that's been a huge change. And then the reins are off a little bit in terms of letting people have a bit more freedom to try things out. See if things work, see if they don't. And have a conversation there. I think that just makes a world of a difference."
What is Becky Lynch grateful for?
"My daughter, my husband and being a New York Times bestseller."