Becky Lynch Recalls Historical Limitations On Women's Wrestling, Comments On Changes

With a match against Rhea Ripley for the Women's World Championship coming up at WrestleMania 40, and a brand new book "Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Girl," hitting bookshelves, Becky Lynch is proof that women's wrestling has come a long way since the days of old. But those days are still close enough that Lynch wants people to remember just how far women's wrestling has come, to avoid it moving backwards.

Appearing on the "Under the Ring" podcast, Lynch talked about the limitations women's wrestling used to face, why those limitations were in place, and what it took to move things forward.

"It was relegated to these short timeslots, to the token gesture, 'Here is the side attraction of the women's match,'" Lynch said. "It was an attraction, and I hated that. And there was limitations on what women could do. Like, you couldn't punch or you couldn't throw somebody into the stairs, because that was seen as too violent. 'Nobody wants to see women be violent.' 

"They do, because this is wrestling, and they want to see them wrestle, and they want to see stories, and they want to see ideas and characters and formations. And I don't think anybody cares what the gender is. So we needed to get rid of that thinking. 

As many steps forward as women's wrestling has made, however, Lynch notes that there are still some things from the past that need to be gotten rid of. Ultimately, one of her goals for women's wrestling is to make it accepted as an equal part of the show to the men, and not have it be a special attraction.

"I think there tends to still be some of that bias there because it's ingrained," Lynch said.  "t's kind of almost like a sort of ingrained thing, that we just need to scrape away the layers of. And we're getting there...and we have gotten to where, if I main event a 'Raw,' it's not a big deal. 'Of course I main event a 'Raw,' I'm awesome.' Or I main event a PPV. 'Of course I main event a PPV. It's not a big deal, because I'm the Man.' 

"But also, Rhea Ripley just main evented in Australia. Of course she should've main evented in Australia. She's their biggest star. So it's all of these things where it's...of course, why not? Whereas before it was like 'Whoa.' I like that it's not a big deal, and I want it to continue to not be a big deal, because it shouldn't be a big deal. It should be a meritocracy, where your position is based on the merit, not on your gender."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Under the Ring" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription