Becky Lynch has released her new autobiography, Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, and it's a fantastic read. Recently, "The Man" sat down for an interview with WrestlingNews.co, and addressed the viral video of Rhea Ripley hitting Nia Jax with a Stinkface.
Fan footage quickly went viral on social media, though WWE would later share an official version. It was a fun house show moment, albeit one which some have argued played into the objectification of Ripley's body which is prolific on platforms like X and Instagram.
Sharing her take on the moment, Lynch explained why she doesn't view the viral video as a positive for the role of women in professional wrestling.
"That just sucks that we're talking about that. You know, like when I think of the amount of women that were at one stage, fighting against that treatment, like, that was what they were forced to do in two-minute matches. Maybe I'm just like stuffy and and jaded because this is the stuff that I had to fight against. Of course, everybody loves it, and it's cool and it's edgy."
"But if I'm a little girl sitting in the crowd, and if I have my daughter, and she's seeing that and she's thinking that that's what she needs to be if she's a professional wrestler. And that's the stuff that's getting a reaction and if I'm a girl who's grown up and wants to be a professional wrestler, and I see, oh well that's the stuff that gets a reaction. And that's the stuff that people are talking about. And that's the stuff that we're posting on social media, and we continue to and even the company does and pushes that, then that is the stuff that gets over and then I'm not taken seriously for what I do in the ring."
"And for the person that I am in the mind that I have. No, it's just about my body. It's about how it looks. And it's about fulfilling a bunch of men's fantasies out there in the crowd, and it becomes not about the art it becomes about that. And I've fought so long to change that and so I kind of go when I'm talking about that, and when I'm forced to answer about that, I go that just f**king sucks. That just f**king sucks."
We don't believe these comments are being made in character, particularly as Lynch talks at length in her book about her battle to move past the sexualised way WWE typically portrayed its female "Divas." For what it's worth, Ripley seems fine with it, though it does appear to have been a one-off.
Check out the full interview with Lynch, and that viral moment, in the players below.