Becky Lynch says WWE WrestleMania match finish was changed to avoid Ronda Rousey tapping out
The finish of a major WrestleMania match was changed to prevent Ronda Rousey from having to tap out, WWE star Becky Lynch has said.
Lynch was the major winner at WrestleMania 35 back in 2019 when she defeated both Rousey and Charlotte Flair in an historic first all-female main event.
The Man left New Jersey with all the marbles thanks to her victory in what was a winner-take-all clash, snatching both Rousey’s Raw Women’s title and Flair’s SmackDown Women’s gold.
Their collective effort, lasting more than 20 minutes, is rightly remembered as one of the finest WWE matches in recent years.
It might all have looked quite different, though, had one of the original creative plans been given the green light.
Lynch has revealed that talks for the finish of the bout at one stage included Rousey losing by submission.
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The decorated grappler, however, clocked Rousey’s unease at a similar suggestion for a spot earlier in the match, and knew the writing was on the wall for the idea of having the former dominator of the Octagon tap out at the climax.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, she explained: “That was the creative laid out.
“We had been talking through stuff [with] TJ Wilson, our producer…he was like, ‘Maybe you have Ronda in armbar, she looks like she’s about to tap out.’
“Ronda comes and we tell her the creative: ‘You’re almost about to tap out,’ [and Ronda replied] ‘My mum wouldn’t look me in the eye or talk to me again if I looked like I was about to tap out.’”
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Lynch then added she thought: “‘Alright, well, she’s probably not going to tap out on the finish then.’”
If Rousey, who’d never tapped out during her UFC career, was reluctant to begin doing so in the predetermined world of WWE, it wasn’t something Lynch minded.
“She never tapped out in her career,” she continued. [I] understood it, respected it, and moved on quickly.
“I was going to win; I was going to win two titles in the main event of WrestleMania. It was not a big deal whether she tapped out or not. I was winning and she was doing the honours.”
The actual finish of the match still ended up with enough controversy, when Lynch pinned Rousey using a crucifix to hand the UFC Hall of Famer her first ever pinfall loss in WWE.
Replays, however, clearly showed one of Rousey’s shoulders being up for the decisive three count, throwing a layer of doubt and illegitimacy over what should have been a decisive moment.
Lynch said the ending was agreed as being much cleaner and with no such ambiguity, saying the match was to close “with a pinfall. Not with a shoulder up, but with a pinfall.”
The newly crowned champ knew something was off, however, admitting: “[The] sound of the audience made it seem like something had gone wrong.
“Obviously, I wasn’t aware. I don’t know if that was intentional or accidental. I could see the motivation for it being intentional. ‘This will be my out to get a second match’ in the long game or it just being accidental.”
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Rousey has since called time on her career in WWE, her final outing coming against Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam last year.
She’s vowed never to return to the company, having blasted the culture in place there at the time.