A Major Injury Forced Becky Lynch Out Of Wrestling For Seven Years
Becky Lynch has been on an entirely different level since WWE SummerSlam in 2019. The era of "The Man" began with an attack on Charlotte Flair following a pinfall loss in a match between her, Flair, and Carmella for the "SmackDown" Women's Championship. Shortly thereafter, fans began to rally around Lynch more and more, ultimately leading to an incredible two-plus year stretch.
For all the accolades, though — which include being a six-time women's champion, Royal Rumble winner, and the only women to hold both the "Raw" Women's Championship and "SmackDown" Women's Championship simultaneously — there was a moment when the real-life Rebecca Quin's professional wrestling career was in jeopardy.
Back when she was wrestling under the name Rebecca Knox, Quin suffered a very serious head injury (via Inside the Ropes Wrestling). So serious, in fact, that she was forced to step away from the ring for seven years, and nobody knew whether or not she would wrestle again at all.
Speaking in an interview back in 2016 (via ESPN), Lynch discussed the injury in detail — and how much of a toll it took on her at such a young age. "I got injured in a match, I was 19, I was away from home, living in Florida and I just got lost," Lynch said. "I couldn't face it, so I stepped away. It was like a death for me, and that is not an exaggeration. I struggled for years to find what I wanted to do."
It's been quite the climb for Becky Lynch
The injury and the fallout that resulted from it may have taken seven years from her career, but Lynch couldn't help feeling as though she had more to accomplish.
"I always kept journals, and it's crazy to go back and read these journals because it seemed like I had unfinished business," she said. "I always felt like it was something I was meant to do, but I just didn't know how to get back in."
She went on to credit Fergal Devitt (Finn Bálor) for getting her back sooner than she may have after a conversation they shared at lunch. Both born in Ireland, Bálor trained Lynch shortly after opening his own wrestling promotion — NWA Ireland — with Paul Tracey in 2002.
"I remember having lunch with him one time on this little bench in Dublin, and I was like, 'Will I come back? Won't I come back?'" Lynch recalled. "And he goes, 'Would you just go back now? Because if you don't you're going to be sitting here with me in 10 years wishing that you had gone back, and it's going to be too late.'"
Fast forward to the present, and Lynch is a multi-time women's champion, WrestleMania main-eventer, and one of WWE's biggest stars. It hasn't always come easily, but "The Man" has made her way to the top.