How does Lynch's career go if she wins at SummerSlam 2018?

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

We've all seen how much Becky Lynch has just gone into orbit in terms of her profile and success within WWE in the last year or so. Of course, the nexus point of that was a triple threat match between her, Charlotte Flair and champion Carmella that was won by Flair. From there, Lynch turns heel, changes her whole attitude, ends up being turned back face by sheer stubborn force, and we're off to the races from there.

But... What if Lynch just wins that SummerSlam match? Doesn't matter who she pins or whatever, but she wins the belt? And she doesn't change her attitude from the comedic slant she'd had for her entire run before that? What happens? Does she get anywhere close to where she is now? Because I don't think she would be.

Of course, the long-time money match in WWE's eyes for the WrestleMania 35 main event was Ronda Rousey v Charlotte Flair. That had been reported as such on and off. So is Flair the one who turns heel coming out of SummerSlam, in the role she's most suited for? Do her and Lynch still have the feud they ended up having through Hell In A Cell, Super Showdown (the Australia one) and Evolution? If Lynch comes out of that still as champion (because of reasons that'll come up in a minute), then she gets her match with Rousey at Survivor Series... But does it have the same heat to it if Lynch's character is still comedic? Does she still lead a roster invasion that leads to her getting punched in the head by Nia Jax, creating a career-defining visual but taking her out of the match completely? If she comes out fine from that, then she'll just be losing straight-up to Rousey at Survivor Series, and that's the end of that.

The most important thing... With Lynch possibly still being one of the champions going into 2019, there's no impetus for her to enter the Royal Rumble. And there was only ever one other person that could have won that. So, come WrestleMania, Lynch would likely end up having a perfectly cromulent midcard title match with someone (unless they still do the unification angle, in which case, she's either gotta find a tag partner or she's back in the damn battle royal after ALL THAT), while Rousey and Flair get all the glory in the main event.

And then there's the wildcard in all this... The character getting stale as champion and the crowd moving on to the next babyface (probably Asuka). She'd already beaten the entire heel side of the SmackDown roster going into SummerSlam, so that leaves her with no feuds coming out of Survivor Series. So does she just end up losing the belt to someone with no fanfare before WrestleMania, or even before the Rumble?

It's crazy that the timeline that ended up happening, ended up better for Lynch than if they just rode with the crowd momentum back at SummerSlam 2018. As much as it annoys me that they keep setting things up where the only way a babyface can really get white-hot is throwing in a heaping helping of "THE OFFICE F***ED THEM OVER, WE MUST CHEER FOR THEM TO SAVE THEM"... it's a circumstance that ended up making Lynch into one of the legit top stars of the company.

TL;DR: How the hell was it probably better in the long run for her to have lost at SummerSlam 2018 than it was for to have won?

[theironyuppie]

What’s crazy is many smarks at the time wanted Becky/Carmella at Summerslam, which probably would have just lead to a ‘Becky Balboa did it again!’ speech and then nothing. Then WWE ably exploited their outrage at Charlotte winning, (Plus the earlier outrage at Alexa winning MITB) which was brilliant because it let Becky get pushed super hard while these same fans were too busy obsessing about Charlotte allegedly being ‘Female Roman’ to have their usual gripes. (Meltzer got worked into thinking this himself, which nicely helped too.)

My belief is that people overstate ‘the fans changed WWE’s mind!!!’ though it’s a perfect narrative for an era where fans are skeptical of anyone the company is perceived to be too strongly behind. Regardless of alignment, Becky was going to win that feud to Evolution because they wanted to do Ronda/Becky at Survivor Series, timed to come out the same week as Marine 6, which is another funny thing, that a WWE Studios movie ended up being pivotal. For me, the real hinge point is Nia’s punch because that’s something that couldn’t be controlled but wound up benefitting Becky massively.

[Mozenrath]

Charlotte's heat and Becky's perception as an underdog is one of the few times WWE indisputably had their fingers to the pulse of the fans, I have to give them that much. Even with Bryan at WM 30, it gets murkier where plans changed, though obviously they pivoted wonderfully. Here, it seems like they figured it out very quickly, given how one sided the feud ended up turning out.

[theironyuppie]

Four other points, because this is an interesting discussion.

1.) Becky beating every heel clean after MITB made me think she was obviously turning heel, but a lot of fans were in denial and came up with really convoluted explanations of why ‘Becky did nothing wrong’. Fans rejected the narrative and then WWE ran with it.

2.) If you look back, Becky targeted smarks very cleverly as a ‘heel’. She consistently focused on being ‘held back’ because of her hair colour and surname, and openly encouraged fans to boo the face. (Remember #BooTheWoo?) , which all helped the idea that WWE wasn’t ‘really’ behind her. Part of Becky’s success is realising the importance of smarks and speaking their language in her social media. For a more recent example, look at the Uncasville SDL back in March. Charlotte wins her first match in four months to beat Asuka for the title, in hindsight it was to set up ‘Becky Two Belts’, but smarks get furious at Charlotte for “burying” Asuka and Becky eggs them on by tweeting “Asuka deserves better.”



3.) I think Triple H explained it well just before Mania. His description was that the company saw something in Becky and put their full weight behind her, “and that’s where the magic happens.”

4.) Another context for this is Becky and Charlotte’s friendship. Charlotte had written in Second Nature in 2017 that she dreamed of putting Becky over and supporting her like Becky has supported her (including Becky writing her a letter before WM32 saying WWE made the right pick of winner), Charlotte has talked in interviews about their excitement at learning they were going to feud (“We’re going to have the feud of the year, we’re going to have the match of the year!”), but due to the fan dynamics and the way they stuck to kayfabe (especially Becky), they made fans forget their friendship.

[Bo Rida]

Remember that promo when she first turned heel and started lashing out at the fans in a nonsensical way. Throughout that first week the presentation was definitely trying to get sympathy for Flair and portray Lynch as a full heel.

Thankfully they changed gears really quickly and dropped that aspect with her anger focused on Flair, iirc Becky later thanked fans for sticking by her while she briefly wavered.

However it makes me wonder what would happen if they stayed stubborn like normal and she carried on with weak attacks on fans every week.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Oct 6, 2019 2:08:39 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

Remember that promo when she first turned heel and started lashing out at the fans in a nonsensical way. Throughout that first week the presentation was definitely trying to get sympathy for Flair and portray Lynch as a full heel.

Thankfully they changed gears really quickly and dropped that aspect with her anger focused on Flair, iirc Becky later thanked fans for sticking by her while she briefly wavered.

However it makes me wonder what would happen if they stayed stubborn like normal and she carried on with weak attacks on fans every week.

It could have done some irreparable damage to Flair, that’s for sure. As it stands right now, even with her currently as face-leaning tweener, there isn’t this peak Reigns-esque heat against her because they treated Lynch so well after those initial promos.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Honestly I don't think much would've changed at least up until Survivor Series. If Becky beat Carmella and won the title at Summerslam then she likely would've just lost to the title Charlotte shortly after which would've triggered her heel turn and feud with Charlotte albeit just one month later. Charlotte would've beat her at Hell in a Cell with Becky attacking her after the match and turning heel and then winning the belt back at Evolution.

I think the bigger question is what would've happened if she hadn't got punched and injured by Nia? That's what was really the start of her getting shot into orbit as after that they just made her a face again and changed their WrestleMania plans to put her over instead of Charlotte. If that punch hadn't happened I could see them just staying the course with her as a heel and if that had happened she would've never reached the heights she's ended up reaching. Becky probably would've just jobbed to Ronda at Survivor Series while Charlotte would've won the Rumble and beat Ronda at Mania. I have no clue what they would've done with Becky through Mania. I guess she would've just successfully defended the SD title over filler challengers like Carmella and Naomi through the winter and then dropped it to Asuka at Mania in an undercard match or even worse yet the pre show.

[Spider2024]

She's a billionaire today. And is married to Seth Rollins, who now has fake curly, blonde hair. Also she owns the police.

[Deleted]

If Becky beat Charlotte at Summerslam last year there's no way that she becomes who she is today. Her rise was as unpredictable as Bryan and Kofi's was which is interesting when you look at how these "super babyfaces" have risen these past 10 years or so. There were many variables that contributed to Becky's rise.

- Becky's underdog character. By that point it was clear that compared to the other 3 Horsewomen, she was the one who was the lowest. Her first title win was cool but it wasn't anything as memorable as it could have been.
- The dislike of Charlotte. This was evident and when you compared it to Becky? It's a no brainer who most of the crowd would go for. Charlotte was in a similar spot was Reigns except she wasn't heavily booed, it was just an underlying "damn Charlotte again? WHY?" thing rather than a "ok the whole crowd will boo this person no matter what they did" situation.
- Her heel antics on social media. Becky's always been great at it but when she was allowed to go heel and put more of her retorts into her character it really latched onto people.
- She was kept pretty strong as a heel. Nuff said.
- Nia's punch to Becky which brought forth a legit injury looked badass overall. She took that hit like a champ and kept it pushing.
- Ronda was on the decline. Ronda was the popular babyface woman at that time but she was on the decline. The fans gravitated to someone else and here comes Becky.

You add all of those together? You get superface Becky. You take that away by having her win that Summerslam match? A completely different result.

For Becky, I say she beats Charlotte and Charlotte's the one who goes heel resulting in the future Ronda/Charlotte WM match. Becky on the other hand becomes that popular face who loses matches, gets into midcard confrontations with those like the IIconics and whoever is a heel on SDL. She's basically be Naomi but with more investment.

Becky would basically be the new Asuka without Asuka's newness sheen. She'd be where she was in 2017.

[theironyuppie]

It’s probably the best example of how in the right circumstances a loss is better than a win. I think yet another factor was Becky being the runner-up and cheated in all three MITB matches to that point., or going further back that she didn’t get a successful PPV title defence during her first title run. In reality it’s because she got hurt and missed No Mercy 2016, but in the end it contributed to the idea of her being ‘held back’.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

It’s impossible to tell because we can’t tell if something else wouldn’t have birthed the Man character. Sometimes you just have to run with something when it gets hot, like them highlighting her bloody nose.

My thing is that WWE’s style of underdog booking has to stop. I think it held Bryan back far more than it helped him, and I believe he still would have gotten those YES chants if he had gone on a five-month reign or so after beating Cena at SummerSlam ‘13.

It was by sheer luck that Lynch’s botched heel turn resulted in a good take-no-mess babyface character, but as of now, Becky is a star and I think they’re wise to keep protecting her. She has way more supporters now than fans who are sick of her.

The one real issue with this The Man run is giving her credible opponents not named Charlotte that can scare her fans that she might lose the title, but I feel that’s a symptom of WWE being bad at building up strong midcarders than the Becky push overall.