Add as a preferred source on Google Becky Lynch revealed she expected to lose the Raw Women’s Championship to Shayna Baszler at WWE WrestleMania 36, held in April 2020 amid the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baszler entered the show as the biggest threat to Lynch’s historic title reign. Weeks earlier, the “Queen of Spades” had dominated the Elimination Chamber Match, eliminating all five other participants by herself to punch her ticket to the title match.
Lynch, however, retained the title at a WrestleMania that was taped inside the Performance Center with no fans in the building.
In a recent appearance on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, Lynch said she believed WWE had been building Baszler up to take over the top of the women’s division, but that the pandemic led to a shift in creative plans.
“I had hoped to have dropped the title at WrestleMania because the company seemed like they were wanting to build [Shayna]. But I think because of the pandemic, they wanted all babyface finishes.
They wanted the audience to be happy because there was enough going on in the world for the world not to be happy about things, and WWE were like, ‘Lets make our audience happy about things.”
The comments offer a possible explanation for something Lynch had already revealed back in 2020. At the time, on The Bellas Podcast, she said she’d pitched losing to Baszler herself, but the idea didn’t get WWE’s approval.
Lynch’s reign ultimately ended without her actually dropping the title in the ring. On May 11, 2020, she announced she was pregnant and handed the championship over to Asuka.