“The Man” Is Taking WWE Back To The Pop Cultural Mountaintop

Irish “Lass Kicker” Becky Lynch Is A Stone Cold Superstar

The idea of a performer using the sobriquet of “The Man” in professional wrestling is a fascinating case of self-aggrandizement in an already quite self-aggrandizing, and largely male-dominated industry. Calling oneself “the man” advances an idea that, as an all-around performer, they’re more intimidating, more proficient at the art of grappling, more virile as an object of sexual affection from adoring fans, or just, in general, the one performer that every other performer looks up to as the standard of excellence in the industry. All that being said, intriguingly, as of October, 2018, there’s no longer a man who’s “the man” in pro wrestling anymore.

Once you realize that the person calling themselves “The Man” is a cisgendered woman named Rebecca Quin — who performs as Becky Lynch — it’s a uniquely exciting moment worthy of celebration. When a woman states that she is unequivocally “The Man” in an industry that has been dominated for an eternity by bold men and their aggressive male energy, it’s worth immediately stopping everything and re-assessing everything. Just like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin did nearly a quarter-century ago, “The Man” Becky Lynch could be the star that negative publicity-hit, yet historically massively pop culturally impacting WWE needs to reascend to the top of the worldwide zeitgeist. When the world is in desperate need of a universally beloved and heralding female presence that can disarm the sociopolitical pressure of sexist demagoguery, let’s all be glad that “The Man’s” finishing manuever is an armbar that’s humorously enough for the self-admitted pun-lover, called “The Dis-arm-her.”

In the past fifty years, there have been two other occasions in which an athlete in pro wrestling has been memorably referred to as “The Man.” In the 1980s and 1990s, it was Ric Flair, the “kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, jet-flying son of a gun,” and sixteen-time World Heavyweight Champion who stated that, “to be the man,” you had to beat, the man.” In 2015, Johnny Cash’s “When The Man Comes Around” was used to add an outlaw roughneck gravitas to an appearance by seven-foot tall, 300-pound, and iconic seven-time World Champion The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 31.

But, when Becky Lynch — who’s also the Women’s Champion of World Wrestling Entertainment’s Smackdown brand — defeated the previously mentioned Ric Flair’s daughter Charlotte in a Last Woman Standing match at WWE’s just-held, and groundbreaking, all-women’s Evolution event, she stated, as she boldly had all month, “I’m the man, I’m the champ. I’m going to stay that way.” This occured in the same press cycle as when a record-smashing 117 women were elected in elections across America. As well, it’s in the same era where empowered women worldwide are having a pop cultural moment. This is a time where a movement needs an eye-popping and headline-grabbing bellwether. Thankfully, via World Wrestling Entertainment, “the man,” — meaning, in this case, a person ideally and very demonstrably representing, with no question from man, woman, or child, the standard of overall excellence in any industry, in all ways — has indeed, “come around.”

Portending what Lynch’s success and proclamation could, and hopefully should, mean for global culture requires a marriage of pro wrestling history and logic-driven pop cultural spit-balling. If what is suggested forthcoming all occurred, it would be wonderful for wrestling, women, feminism, and the world at-large.