Becky Lynch and Bayley are two of WWE’s all-time great performers. Even the most loathsome internet trolls cannot erase or discredit what they’ve accomplished, and what they have done for women’s wrestling.
These two multi-time Women’s Champions are still in their prime, performing better than they ever have been before and the audience continues to be invested in what they are doing on a weekly basis.
There’s no way Becky Lynch and Bayley are going to miss WrestleMania 39, right…? Right!?
Well, here we are a day out from Elimination Chamber and neither woman finds themselves on the card tomorrow night (Feb. 18) and neither woman has a clear path to the biggest show of the year on April 1-2 in greater Los Angeles.
The only members of the roster who have or will have punched their ticket to Hollywood by the end of the weekend are Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair and whomever wins the Elimination Chamber #1 Contenders Match.
Outside of those four, there’s an entire locker room full of incredibly talented women who could very easily find themselves as spectators at WrestleMania this year. So, Becky Lynch and Bayley are far from being in a unique position. Although, in the case of The Man, it’s a position she has not found herself in since 2018.
While Lynch’s history making run to the top of the wrestling industry began in the summer of that year, the lead up to WrestleMania 34 was chock full of disappointment for fans of the Irish Lass Kicker:
– Money in the Bank, June 18, 2017: James Ellsworth shoves Becky Lynch off the ladder and steals the briefcase for Carmella.
– SmackDown, June 27, 2017: In the MITB rematch, Lynch climbs the ladder only to be taken out by Carmella’ steal chair shot in route to the Staten Island Princess winning the match a second time.
– Battleground, July 23, 2017: Natalya eliminates Lynch with a rollup in a Fatal 5-way to determine the No. 1 Contender for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at SummerSlam.
– SummerSlam, August 20, 2017: Becky Lynch was not on the card.
– Survivor Series, November 19, 2017: Despite being the captain for Team SmackDown, Lynch was the first person eliminated from the match in just over two minutes. Fittingly, she pinned by Bayley.
– Royal Rumble, January 28, 2018: In just her third match since Survivor Series, Lynch enters the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble Match at No. 2 and lasts just over a half hour before being eliminated by Ruby Riott.
– Mixed Match Challenge, January 30, 2018: Team Ginger Snaps (Lynch and Sami Zayn) lose their opening round match against Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman
– Fastlane, March 11, 2018: Carmella and Natalya defeat Becky Lynch and Naomi; Lynch takes the loss for her team. I was (sadly) in Columbus, OH to watch her take that L in person.
– WrestleMania 34, April 8, 2018: Becky Lynch participates in the 20 Woman Battle Royal on the pre-show and is eliminated by Mickie James. I do believe, she at least got her own entrance.
I’m sorry to make all the stans of The Man relive that history, but I’m trying to put things into perspective here. This is where Lynch was at in her career the last time her position on the WrestleMania card was in question.
Now, quite obviously, things have drastically changed since then.
Ever since WrestleMania 35, it’s been nothing but World Title matches for Big Time Becks — except for WrestleMania 37 in Tampa, FL when Lynch was roughly four months postpartum. But still, her position at ‘Mania was not in question. We all knew she wasn’t going to be there, despite any online chatter or teases that made people think otherwise.
Unfortunately for Bayley, this is starting to become a troubling trend. Damage CTRL’s head honcho has not had a match at WrestleMania since it was held at the Performance Center during the early days of the pandemic. The last time she wrestled in front of a crowd on the Grandest Stage of them All was back in 2019 when she & Sasha Banks lost their recently won Women’s Tag Team Championships.
There was absolutely nothing she could do about missing the event last year as she was still recovering from knee surgery. Her absence from the card in 2021, however, was just flat out inexcusable.
A number of Superstars stepped up to help the company find its way through the ThunderDome era, but none more so than Bayley. She took charge both on screen and in the locker room to make sure WWE was churning out the best possible television for all of us who were stuck in our homes.
How do I know? This is what Natalya told me about Bayley during an interview I conducted back in 2021:
“She really made work better. She made work better for everyone and she was just such a rock star during the ThunderDome Era,” Natalya said. “Even though she played the role of a bad girl on TV, she just made everything fun.”
“She reminded all of us that… we may not have all the resources that we want, because we don’t have our audience right in front of us, but let’s interact with each other. Let’s yell at Michael Cole. Let’s be silly. Let’s be goofy. Let’s turn it up. Let’s just make the best out of this. So she’s truly been an inspiration to myself and so many others at work.”
How was Bayley rewarded? She was left off the first show with live fans in well over a year and had to do media rounds promoting the event, even though she wasn’t on the card.
WWE didn’t even make her the host of the WrestleMania. Not an ideal role for a wrestler, but it would have at least made sense due to the rising popularity of her “Ding Dong, Hello!” talk show segments.
No, instead she basically had to steal the honor from Hulk Hogan and Titus O’Neil and was then thrown down the entrance ramp by the Bella Twins for her trouble.
Bayley herself, is vowing not to let that happen again.
Traditionally, there just hasn’t been much room for a non-title women’s feud at WrestleMania. Well, allow me to re-phrase… Not much room has been allotted for non-title women’s feuds at WrestleMania in years past.
The last time there was a women’s match on the card that didn’t have any Championship ramifications whatsoever, outside of a battle royal, was back at WrestleMania 31 when Divas Champion Nikki Bella teamed with her sister in a tag match against Paige and AJ Lee.
Anyone care to guess the last time there was a one-on-one women’s match on the main card of WrestleMania that didn’t involve a Championship?
The answer: WrestleMania 22 when Torrie Wilson defeated Candice Michelle in a Playboy Pillow Fight Match that lasted just under four minutes. We’ve come a long way folks.
Once again, Bayley and Becky may have to buck a trend if they’re going to make the cut. Although a few other options are available.
Yes, here comes some more fantasy booking from yours truly. It’s part of the job, people!
The simplest solution would be to just have Lynch and Bayley go one-on-one, once again, to finish off this rivalry months after it began. The questions then becomes how do they continue the story over the next several weeks, and what do they do to elevate above their recent cage match? Hell in a Cell?
Rumors have suggested that another Cell match may be in the works between Edge and Finn Balor, so that may not be an option. Still though, even if it’s just a good ole fashioned wrestling match to see who the better Horsewoman really is, it can’t be ruled out.
Another option I’m not ruling out, is Lynch and Bayley ultimately being added to the Raw Women’s Championship, even though neither of them beat Bianca Belair to win their way into Saturday night’s No. 1 Contenders match in Montreal. But that would greatly devalue the importance of tomorrow’s Chamber match.
Let’s not forget that there was a huge 6-woman tag team match that was supposedly in the works for Elimination Chamber, but unless something happens tonight on SmackDown to set it up, that match will not happen this weekend.
The expectation was that following Lita’s triumphant return to Raw to help Lynch win the aforementioned cage match, another Hall of Famer was set to return to even the odds against Damage CTRL. Reports were that Trish Stratus was originally scheduled to be on Raw this week, but Dakota Kai’s injury may be the reason those plans were cancelled.
Becky Lynch, Lita and Trish Stratus vs. Bayley, Dakota Kai and IYO SKY screams WrestleMania match to me anyway, so why not just wait a few more weeks and do it in Hollywood? Assuming Dakota is healthy and it works for everyone’s schedule.
Side note: This would be only the second WrestleMania match of Lita’s career, so any scenario that gets her on the card, you can sign me up for that.
There is a trickle down effect to booking that 6-woman tag match. What happens to the Women’s Tag Team Championship match? It’s not official yet, but Damage CTRL is slated to defend their gold against Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler.
They could always take the belts off Dakota and IYO. It’s possible Lynch causes a distraction that allows an upstart team like Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (or Tegan Nox… is that still a thing?) or Candice LeRae & Mia Yim to win the belts and move on to defend the belts against Rousey & Baszler.
What about adding a team of Becky Lynch and Lita to the Tag Team Title match? It may not be the Rousey vs. Lynch match many of us were expecting, but it could provide WWE with an opportunity to rekindle some flames and see if there’s still interest in those two going one-on-one down the road.
But if Lynch, Dakota, IYO are all involved in one match, what happens to Bayley?
The perfect scenario that gets both Lynch and Bayley on the card, doesn’t seem to exist without them working together. Then again, maybe they aren’t working together in Los Angeles. Maybe something else completely different is in the works.
This is the look of a dejected Becky Lynch after losing Monday’s triple threat match. Suddenly her plan to get to WrestleMania has gone up in smoke and she has no idea what to do next. Sound familiar?
Yep, this is exactly what happened to her husband, Seth Rollins, last year before Vince McMahon booked him against a mystery opponent. That opponent, of course, ended up being Cody Rhodes.
Is it Becky’s turn this year? Could she be tasked with carrying her own story all the way through April 1st until she faces a mystery opponent? No doubt she could do wonders picking up where her husband left off last year. But… who’s the opponent?
Is there a female version of Cody Rhodes out there that could swoop back in to the company in grand fashion?
Wait a minute. Wrestling does indeed have more than one royal family and right now the family on top of the entire industry is missing their queen.
Image for a moment, a sold out SoFi Stadium. 54,000 plus fans waiting anxiously. Lynch standing in the ring for what feels like several minutes. The lights go out. Then the music hits.
BRING IT TO THE FLOOR!
No one knows what Naomi’s standing with WWE these days other than herself and whoever is involved with writing the contracts. But this would be a hell of a way to bring her back into the fold. Present her like the big deal that she is and then put her over one of your top female athletes.
What I like most about this scenario is that it could be either Lynch or Bayley in this situation. If you want the crowd to feel the glow, bring her back against Bayley. Or my pipe dream – book her against Becky, give her new music, have her be flanked by the Usos, and make it clear that she runs with the Bloodline. Or possibly even runs the Bloodline after Roman drops the belt to Cody Rhodes on night two and (most likely) takes some time off.
Regardless how things actually go down, there are a number of options on the table. I have a few more I could bore you with, but I’ll save them for now. Just rest easy Becky Lynch and Bayley fans. They are far too important to the company and this is way too big of a show for them to be left off of it.
Kick your feet up and enjoy the ride.
Where do you think Becky Lynch and Bayley will fall on the WrestleMania card? Let us know in the comment section below. You can follow Rick Ucchino on Twitter and subscribe to the Bleav in Pro Wrestling Podcast Channel for more of his work.
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