A bitter shame

Some wounds never heal.

And even the ones that do leave scar tissue.

Gnarled streaks of pain and remembrance that serve as a constant reminder of an injury suffered.

Physical or mental, these wounds shape us and mold us and push us in directions we never expected, paths we’d never have taken otherwise.

And thus we reach the WWE Raw Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 38.

Becky Lynch returned from maternity leave expecting to be a conquering hero, and she got a hero’s welcome when she walked through the curtain at SummerSlam, but she left a villain.

It was the circumstances of the thing, of course. It wasn’t really that she won the title back, it was that she humiliated Bianca Belair in less than a minute to do it. Her own excellence isn’t really her fault, of course, but when she walked through that curtain I knew I was expecting a great match, an instant classic, but Becky caught Bianca off-guard and destroyed her, and the crowd deflated.

That was all that Lynch’s psyche could take. Something broke inside of her with those first boos, and she’s never been able to recover. She could have addressed it in a more neutral way, but she took offense and almost immediately began berating the fans for not supporting her like they had before she got pregnant.

So was born Big Time Becks, out of hurt and spite, a scar cutting its way across Becky’s entire self, fueling her and taking her already incredible professional wrestling acumen to another level. Her title reign has rolled along like a freight train, knocking Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, Liv Morgan, Doudrop, and even the legendary Lita aside.

But Belair has been there the entire time, looking for another shot, her presence making Lynch’s mental scar throb and ache like an arthritic knee when a storm front comes in, and now she has her chance.

Being defeated in less than a minute takes its own toll, of course.

Belair calls herself the EST, the most superlative superstar on the entire roster. She’s the fastEST, the strongEST, the toughEST, and just generally the bEST. How can the best be defeated in mere seconds? Even accounting for the issue that she didn’t expect to be fighting Becky Lynch, to be looking up at the lights that quickly?

That’d rock anyone down to their foundations. But when your entire brand is how great you are? Oof, that’s a tough one. But Bianca put her nose to the grindstone, refocused, and earned herself a title shot at WrestleMania 38 to make right what once went wrong.

It’ll be a hard road, though, because Bianca has never managed to pick up a televised singles victory over Becky Lynch. Indeed, even at house shows, she’s only ever managed a disqualification victory once. She’s gotten into Becky’s head to some degree, scarring her with a hair whip, injuring her throat, and claiming handfuls of Lynch’s golden orange locks, but she doesn’t have the pure confidence of knowing that she’s beaten her before and she can beat her again, and that might just be enough to keep her from winning the big one on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

Can Bianca Belair close the circle and regain the Raw Women’s Championship or will Big Time Becks crush her dreams again?