Becky Lynch 365: The highs and lows of The Man's year-long title reign

On April 7, 2019, Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in the main event of WrestleMania 36 to become the RAW and SmackDown Women's Championship. While she would lose the SmackDown title a month later to Charlotte, The Man has held on to the RAW title for a year now, breaking numerous records in the process. As RAW Women's Champion, Lynch not only became the face of the women's division but of the entire company. It was hard even to contemplate Lynch being in such a position a few years where she was languishing in pre-show matches or simply off TV for a long time.

Becky Lynch's year-long reign has seen her defeat the who's who of WWE women's division. She has shined in her role as the face of the company. But the best thing about Lynch has been the ability to fans invested in her character and storylines. The Man has always had a vocal fan base but over the past year and a half, she has got popular than ever and there seem to be no signs of her popularity dwindling. This is a remarkable achievement in today's time where we have seen fans turning on a Superstar on a whim (cue Seth Rollins).

But it hasn't been all rainbow and sunshine for The Man and her title reign. There have been numerous instances where the fans have questioned her booking as this unstoppable force. Lynch has had to face criticism as some of her high-profile matches failed to click with the audience.

Here are some of the highs and lows of Lynch's year-long reign as the RAW Women's Champion :

#5 High: Conquering The Empress

Lynch standing tall over Asuka at Royal Rumble

There are moments in sports where an athlete just can't get the better of his opponent for a long time. We have it seen happen in tennis with Roger Federer found it difficult to get past Rafael Nadal in the duo's first few meetings. In MMA, Tito Ortiz never managed to eke out a win over ' The Iceman' Chuck Liddell until their final bout in 2018.

In wrestling too, there have numerous instances where a wrestler just couldn't beat an opponent for a long time. Lynch's rise saw her defeat some of the best that the company had to offer but there was one Superstar whom The Man wasn't able to put down and that was 'The Empress of Tomorrow' Asuka.

The Japanese Star had been a constant thorn in Lynch's side for the longest time. She defeated The Man and Charlotte Flair in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship at TLC 2018. Lynch would get a shot at redemption when she faced off against Asuka for the title at Royal Rumble 2019 but would come up short after she submitted to the Asuka Lock. Later that night, The Irish Lasskicker would insert herself in the Women's Royal Rumble match and win the entire thing by last eliminating Charlotte Flair.

Lynch would have to wait another year before she once again got her hands on Asuka. After conquering every single challenge put in front of her, Lynch would turn her attention to Asuka, the one woman she wasn't able to get the better off. A match between the duo was set for Royal Rumble 2020 for the RAW Women's Championship. The build-up to the match saw Lynch question herself on whether or not she had what takes to defeat one of the most dominant Superstars in WWE history.

Lynch ended up overcoming her biggest challenge as she defeated Asuka to retain the RAW Women's Championship at the Royal Rumble. She would once again beat the Empress in a rematch for the title a few weeks later on RAW.

#4 Low: Survivor Series main event

The main event of Survivor Series 2019 ended up being a huge mess

Survivor Series 2019 was the very edition of the event which saw the addition of NXT. The marquee match saw the Women's Champions from RAW, SmackDown, and NXT go up against each other in a battle for brand supremacy. Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Shayna Baszler were the champions of their respective brands during that time. The program began after Baszler interrupted a promo segment involving Lynch and laying out the gauntlet for Survivor Series. This was followed by them invading each other's brands during the build-up to this highly-anticipated clash.

The fact that this match was the main-event slot in a show which had names like Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins showed the immense faith the company in these women. That, sadly, wasn't the case when it came to this match as it turned out to be a pretty disappointing affair. For starters, there were never any high-points during the match. This was essentially the competitors going through their usual moves with little to no reaction from the crowd.

The finish of this match saw Baszler submit Bayley to her patented Kirifuda Clutch. Following the match, Lynch would attack Baszler, putting her through the announcer table and raising her title to close out the show. The match drew heavy criticism from both fans and critics, with many questioning why Lynch (a babyface) attacked Baszler after she had just lost to The Queen of Spades.

#3 High: Feud with Sasha Banks

After successfully defending her title against Natalya at SummerSlam, Lynch would enter into a feud against her fellow Horsewoman, Sasha Banks. After losing the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship to The IIconics at WrestleMania 36, Banks was off WWE TV for the next few months. There were tons of rumors regarding her status within the company. Some reports suggested that Banks threw a big tantrum following her loss at Mania 36, while others said that she had requested for her release. Banks wouldn't utter a single word during his time before squashing the rumors in a WWE Chronicle covering her return.

Banks would return to the company on the RAW after SummerSlam interrupting Natalya before proceeding to attack The Queen of Harts, thus turning heel for the first time in over four years. This would lead to Lynch coming to the aid of Natalya but The Boss would batter The Man, laying her out with chair shots. This would lead to a feud between the two, which led to two of the best women's matches of 2019.

Banks and Lynch faced off for the RAW Women's Title at Clash of Champions, where Banks defeated Lynch via DQ after The Man inadvertently hit the referee with a steel chair. Despite the dusty finishes, the in-ring action between the two until that point was pretty spectacular. It reminded people of the classic NXT Women's Championship Match that the duo had at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable in 2015. This was followed by a Match of the Year candidate at Hell in a Cell where the two Superstars pushed each other to their limits. The finish of the match saw Sasha Banks tap out to Becky Lynch's Dis-arm-her.

#2 Low: On-screen pairing with Seth Rollins

The main-event of Stomping Grounds 2019 saw Seth Rollins go up against Baron Corbin for the Universal Championship with the added stipulation that allowed Corbin to choose a Special Guest Referee. Corbin would choose Lacey Evans, who had lost to Lynch earlier in the night, to officiate the match. Evans would constantly get in Rollins' face before hitting The Architect square between his legs. This would bring out Rollins' real-life girlfriend, Becky Lynch, who would take Evans out of the equation, allowing Rollins to hit a stomp on Corbin and pin him to retain his Universal Championship.

This led to a storyline that saw Lynch and Rollins take on the team of Evans and Corbin in an Extreme Rules Mixed Tag Team Match with both the Universal and the RAW Women's Championship at stake. While their match at Extreme Rules was pretty solid, the storyline involving Lynch and Rollins faced a lot of criticism. The interactions between the duo failed to click with the audience with the vocal section of fans calling them 'cringe'. The company's constant pestering of the pair as a real-life couple also didn't go down well with the audience.

Both Lynch and Rollins have spoken out about how the storyline didn't exactly turn out the way they envisioned it to be. Rollins has even gone to the extent of saying that he nixed the idea of him ever pairing up with Lynch. While Lynch came out of the angle pretty much unscathed, Rollins wasn't so lucky as, in hindsight, this ended up being the first straw that broke Rollins as a babyface.

#1 High: Main-eventing WrestleMania

There is no greater achievement for a WWE Superstar, in our opinion, than to be the main event of WrestleMania and close out the Showcase of the Immortals with a victory. Over the last 36 years, we have a plethora of Superstars etch their name in history books by closing out the biggest event of the year. But what made Lynch's rise to the top even more special was the fact that she had to fight for her spot every step of the way.

The fact that Lynch went from the pre-show Women's Battle Royale in WrestleMania 34 to the main event of WrestleMania 35 speaks volumes about the kind of hurdles that The Man had to overcome to get to the top. Lynch was never supposed to be in the main event in the first place; it was always intended to be Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair. But The Man's unbreakable bond with the WWE Universe and her grit forced the company's hand, and what happened next was history.

Lynch would defeat Rousey and Flair in the main event of WrestleMania 35 to become the RAW and SmackDown Women's Champion. The Man had gone from strength to strength following her victory at 'Mania a year ago.

A year on, she has cemented her position as one of the top stars in the company. Given the kind of work she has done during this period, it is hard to argue that she doesn't deserve the position that she is currently in.

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