Becky Lynch pitched losing the Raw Women’s title even before she knew she was pregnant

A lot of fans were surprised when Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women’s championship at WrestleMania 36. The Man’s reign had stretched for a year at that point, and WWE made a big effort to establish Shayna Baszler as an unstoppable force leading up the two-night PPV.

That surprise was compounded when Lynch was barely on television after ‘Mania, then revealed after Money in the Bank that she was vacating the title because she was pregnant.

Becky’s recounting of those events from the latest episode of The Bellas Podcast isn’t going to make you less surprised. She brings it up while discussing how she approached having a child with fellow mothers-to-be Brie and Nikki.

“I knew I wanted to try and have a baby before 35. Then I met [Seth Rollins] and was like, ‘perfect, this is my person.’ This was always the plan.

“Originally I was like, ok, well - I’ll wait til I’m done wrestling and then I’ll have a family. But then I started thinking, but wait, why do I have to do that? Guys don’t have to do that. Hell, I’ll just do it whenever the time feels right! So we started trying, and I just thought it would take a long time. And it didn’t. We were super lucky.

“It happened before I would’ve expected and I was still the champ at the time. I actually thought that I was going to lose the title at WrestleMania, which I also pitched … but you know, plans change!”

Lynch didn’t know she was pregnant until after she beat Baszler (she also says she was worried she might not be able to have kids due to damage done to her body from 18 years in wrestling and fitness competition), so the decision to have The Man retain wasn’t a total vote of no confidence in Shayna. But it’s hard to see it as Vince McMahon & team having a lot of faith in the former MMA fighter.

Especially when they went with Asuka as champ instead of her once they knew Becky was leaving for a while. Lynch explained some of how that came about to the twins, too.

“I was like, ‘Is there a way she [Asuka] can beat me real quick?’

“[Seth] is like, ‘No! You’re not - no.’

“‘Yeah, you’re right.’ We talked a lot and decided, what if there’s a tournament for the number one contendership and they don’t know they’re actually competing for the title? Right as they go to have the last match, I tell them it’s for the title?

“But Money in the Bank was happening at the same time but it was too confusing to merge the two so they decided to do the Money in the Bank ladder match and have that as the title match without them knowing.”

Baszler hasn’t been on television since May 18. Becky’s due in December, and hasn’t committed to returning yet - but Rollins thinks she will.