Becky Lynch responds to WWE icon's criticism of her
Becky Lynch believes Ric Flair decided to stop criticizing her after she called him out on Twitter in February.
Flair repeatedly made comments about Lynch on his podcast in late 2021 and early 2022. The 73-year-old also gave regular updates about his trademark battle with WWE over Lynch’s The Man nickname, which he thinks should belong to him.
In an interview with BT Sport’s Ariel Helwani, Lynch said she has the same opinion of Flair now that she had after Survivor Series 2021. Following that event, she revealed that the two-time Hall of Famer’s multiple digs toward her caused a lot of stress.
“The same [opinion] as I did then,” Lynch said. “I just feel like he simmered back a little bit now, but [he] was just coming at me for any freaking reason for a while there. Then I called him out on it and it seems to have stopped.” [12:12-12:43]
Lynch used to share car rides with Charlotte Flair and Ric Flair during her early days on WWE’s main roster.
The animosity between Lynch and the Flairs began in 2018 when she adopted the nickname The Man en route to becoming a main-eventer. While Charlotte was allegedly jealous of Lynch’s success, Ric thought "The Man" was too similar to his "to be the man" catchphrase.
What caused Becky Lynch to tweet about Ric Flair?
“Work so hard your heroes become your rivals. Then, become so good, Ric Flair loses his mind every time you breathe”- Becky Lynch - February 2022
As she often does, Becky Lynch referred to Ronda Rousey as “Ronnie” in a promo segment on the January 31 episode of RAW.
Ric Flair felt that Lynch’s nickname for the UFC Hall of Famer was derogatory, so he criticized her on the next episode of his podcast:
“Once again, she's not 'Ronnie,' she's Ronda Rousey. And anybody who's stupid enough to call her 'Ronnie' and make a joke of her presence, what she brings to the company, is out of their mind, AKA — what is her name now — Big Time Becks. 'Hey Ronnie, welcome back.' That's exciting, that's really exciting…”
Shortly thereafter, Lynch jokingly claimed on Twitter that Flair loses his mind every time she breathes. The tweet appeared to stop the back-and-forth words between the two until Helwani's question about the RAW Women's Champion's opinion of Flair.
Please give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.