Becky Lynch Talks Pressure To Fit The “WWE Mold”

Unlike many of the athletes Becky Lynch came through the developmental system with, her road to WWE was long and arduous. Lynch began wrestling at just 15 years of age but it wouldn’t be until 11 years into her wrestling career that WWE would sign her. In that time, she began to doubt if she was what the company was looking for.

The 31-year-old recently appeared on the Conversations with Maria Menounos show and spoke about the pressure she felt earlier in her career.

“I remember hearing from a woman who said, ‘They don’t want girls like us. They want fluff.’ And I remember thinking in my head, ‘Well let’s see about this.’ But, also being like, ‘Oh ok, well what do I got to do?’” Lynch said on the show. “So at that time everybody was just drop dead models, stunning, and looked phenomenal.”

Lynch worked numerous jobs while she chased her WWE dream. She worked as an airline attendant and also did stunt work on the show, Vikings.

“I thought if I looked like a fitness model maybe I’ve got a better chance of getting hired,” Lynch continued. “So that’s why I got into bodybuilding and with that, of course, I didn’t do it properly. I didn’t really know what I was doing….and I just dropped so much weight and I didn’t have the energy and with that your mood changes…everything changes and gets messed up.”

She would continue to say the early frustrations in her career led to depression.

“I was going into depression and lack of self-belief more than anything,” Lynch said. “That lack of self-belief can be so detrimental to anybody in any field…they just throw away their art and what they’re good and what they’re meant to do because they just don’t believe in themselves.”

Lynch would also credit Dusty Rhodes for helping her have more confidence. “If it wasn’t for Dusty Rhodes believing in me a lot of the times, I wouldn’t be here.”