WWE Hall Of Famer Takes A Dig At Fans For Criticising Becky Lynch’s Heel Turn At SummerSlam 2018

WWE legends and former superstars from the attitude era are making their presence felt these days. In the world of professional wrestling, unexpected twists and shocking moments are part of what make the sport so exhilarating. One such moment occurred at WWE SummerSlam 2018 when Becky Lynch, after a hard-fought match, turned on her friend Charlotte Flair. What was intended to be a heel turn for Lynch ended up receiving a surprising reaction from the Brooklyn crowd at the Barclay’s Centre—a loud cheer for “The Man. This incident has sparked an ongoing debate about whether fans were right to cheer for the heel turn.

During the event, Charlotte Flair emerged victorious in a match against Carmella and Becky Lynch, clinching the SmackDown Women’s Championship. However, it was the post-match actions that grabbed the spotlight. After embracing Flair, Becky Lynch suddenly unleashed a vicious attack on her friend, marking her transformation into a heel character. The creative narrative behind the turn was that Flair had weaselled her way into the match and stolen the title opportunity from Lynch, who had earned her title shot.

On the recent episode of the Oh, You Didn’t Know?” podcast, former WWE superstar “Road Dogg” Brian James weighed in on the controversy. He expressed his belief that the fans were in the wrong for cheering Lynch’s attack on Charlotte Flair. James questioned the crowd’s response, particularly when considering the context of the situation. He stated:

“The idea was that Charlotte came in and weaselled her way in and won the title, and she kind of stole it from ecky.. Becky had a title match.”

“So, why—and that’s just where maybe I’m older and I don’t understand, but you don’t just get handed crap around here? So to me, the whole thing was that I thought the fans were wrong.”

Using an analogy from the world of sports, James drew a parallel between Lynch’s actions and a scenario involving poor sportsmanship. He questioned whether fans would cheer for a losing team that resorts to violence after a match.

“You’re cheering the wrong person here because—what if the Bad News Bears were shaking hands with the team, or whoever, your baseball-playing son is shaking hands saying, Good game, good game, or your softball-playing daughter, Good game, good game, and the team that loses just beats the crap out of the person?

“Do you pop for that, or do you go, ‘Oh my god, what are you doing? That’s horrible sportsmanship.’ That’s what Becky did, and people loved it.”

James also expressed his realization that wrestling fandom’s landscape has been significantly influenced by social media, particularly Twitter. He noted how fan reactions on platforms like Twitter now play a substantial role in shaping conversations and opinions about wrestling events.

“It let me know then, like, oh okay. There’s no goodness left at all [laughs]. It’s all Twitter; the world is Twitter. The world is Twitter now.”

Despite the crowd’s enthusiastic response, James firmly stood by his stance that fans were mistaken in cheering Lynch’s actions. He asserted that, from a storytelling perspective, Lynch’s character was the heel in the situation, and her actions were those of a spoiled sport who couldn’t handle defeat:

“This is still my stance, and I’ll have this conversation with anybody, and maybe I’m wrong, but it’s my belief. Becky was the heel with every move she made, but the crowd ate it up.”

“Yeah, we predicted that they would pop for Becky [at SummerSlam] because Becky’s star was rising. I thought, ‘Well, surely they’re going to see that Becky is just a spoiled sport here.’ She lost.”

James recognised that societal factors, along with the influence of wrestling on Twitter, contributed to the unique crowd reaction. While the intention was to present Becky Lynch as the heel, the complexities of the modern wrestling landscape blurred the lines between traditional character roles.

The incident at SummerSlam 2018 is a prime example of how wrestling storytelling can sometimes take unexpected turns, eliciting differing reactions from fans. While some fans saw Becky Lynch as a hero standing up for herself, others, like Road Dogg, perceived her actions as those of a heel. This ongoing debate showcases the intricate relationship between wrestling narratives, fan perspectives, and the evolving dynamics of the wrestling community in the age of social media. Fans will be keen to know how this shapes up for their favourite Man, Becky Lynch.