WWE pulled out all the stops for their streaming debut on Netflix to mark a new era in the company’s presentation. Well, they pulled out all the stops except one of their biggest.
Even as fans relished the return of John Cena – and booed Hulk Hogan out of the building while shrugging off the Undertaker – they sorely missed the rumored return of Becky Lynch.
The seven-time world champion has been out for more than six months after rumors that her contract expired on June 1, and she hasn’t been seen since. There’s been rampant speculation about her future, including rumblings that she has signed a new contract already under the table.
If that was the case, then WWE held off on returning Becky Lynch on their Netflix debut and are saving her for a later date, if, again, we assume that she has quietly penned a new deal with WWE. (And, obviously, WWE would want to keep that quiet for the entertainment value of it all.)
BodySlam.net actually reported that Becky was planned to appear on Netflix, indicating she has a new deal in place with the company, but that WWE held off on having her appear on the show in favor of the Undertaker’s appearance.
Becky would have been a much more welcome – and useful – return to WWE programming than the Undertaker making a one-off appearance to put over Rhea Ripley, who, quite frankly, didn’t need Taker during her moment in the sun after taking down Liv Morgan.
As frustrating as it was to see just one women’s match in more than three hours of action on Raw’s Netflix debut, hopefully, WWE has something big planned for Becky upon her return, because if, say, WWE passed on returning her for a useless Hulk Hogan segment and a bunch of random celebrity shots into the crowd without much oomph planned for her actual return, then that just looks even worse.
The next logical step for Becky Lynch to return is to a raucous pop at the Royal Rumble in Indianapolis later this month. As John Cena showed the world in 2008, there’s nothing quite like a triumphant Rumble return from a living legend, and Becky, the first woman to win a WrestleMania main event, is very much in that rarified air and can rival anyone in the business on the mic.
A Becky Rumble return – plus or minus a win, but at least with a very meaningful run in the match – is the ideal scenario now. Again, that’s all assuming she is indeed back with the company, but, in all honesty, with the way things are kept under wraps, it’s hard to envision the calm being anything but a sign that Becky is planning a true surprise return, which has become something of a lost art in modern professional wrestling.
Kevin was an editor at Daily DDT, covering professional wrestling, and is now doing the same here at Let Them Wrestle.