The record books will say that Charlotte Flair defeated Becky Lynch by disqualification at WWE Super Show-Down, but we all know that it was “The Irish Lass Kicker” who “won” by outsmarting “The Queen” to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Ever since Becky Lynch won the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WWE SummerSlam 2018, the title has felt like one of the most important honors in the promotion. Samoa Joe and AJ Styles have put together a brilliant feud for the WWE Championship, the NXT Titles are always prestigious, and Roman Reigns is a strong Universal Champion. But few champions carry themselves quite like Lynch, who finds new ways to step up her game each week.

On the final episode of SmackDown Live prior to Super Show-Down yesterday morning, Lynch once again got the better of Charlotte Flair. She “created” her own graphic for the Melbourne, Australia Pay Per View, since the actual poster, which was drafted well in advance of the event, omitted her. Lynch is the champion, she should be represented better by WWE, and she took it upon herself to make her dissatisfaction with the company’s marketing machine known.

At every twist and turn, Lynch has done her best to antagonize herself to Charlotte, much to the delight of the audience. The WWE Universe has backed Becky 100% from the first time she was drafted to the main roster, and they will never turn their backs on the champion.

That became clear at Super Show-Down, because Lynch remains loved despite causing a disqualification. After initially trying to walk out of the match, which seemed shocking given that Lynch rarely backs down from a fight, Becky was thrown back into the ring by an incensed Charlotte.

After hitting a second, devastating spear on Lynch (Charlotte’s spears looked awesome yesterday), she went for the Figure Eight. But just as she bridged and seemed prepared to win the title back, a resourceful Lynch grabbed the SmackDown Women’s Championship and broke up the hold by hitting Flair with the title to cause the disqualification.

As you can see in the above video released by WWE, a backstage interviewer caught up with Lynch to ask her to clarify her actions. Lynch, as far as we knew, didn’t seem like the type of wrestler who would take a shortcut like that to avoid losing the title. But Becky reasoned that WWE is filled with champions and “nobodies”, giving a tremendous smirk to the camera after she slyly remarked that “for the champ, business is good”.

Becky’s smugness as a champion is wonderful to watch, and few wrestlers have pulled off that kind of cockiness as a champ this year. She toes the line between heel and antihero, soaking up cheers from the audience, even as she berates the company and blatantly disrespects Charlotte, who remains as much of a babyface as she ever was.

I love that Becky is willing to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship by any means necessary. This is a woman who turned on her best friend at the second-biggest show of the year after she felt she was screwed out of winning the title. The championship means everything to Becky, so why wouldn’t she use all of the resources at her disposal to retain the title?

There’s a “champion’s advantage” in matches for a reason, and Becky is merely being smarter by living to fight another day. In the past, Becky would have been the one getting played by the heel, but the new version of her character is more savvy and less restricted by defining actions in the wrestling ring as being “right” or “wrong”.

In the above interview following her match at Super Show-Down, Becky didn’t downplay or praise her opponent. She will have to defend that title again on the next episode of SmackDown Live, and while she said that facing a potentially hurt Charlotte Flair doesn’t change anything, the fact of the matter is that Becky has defeated her several times before.

Despite almost losing to Charlotte at Super Show-Down, Becky remains confident because she can either defeat Charlotte (the two are evenly matched, as evidenced by the frequent counters and near-falls in their matches) or outsmart her without pinning or submitting “The Queen”. That’s a powerful mindset to have, and it’s one that Becky uses to add to her newfound sense of bravado. As she said, she “owns” Charlotte Flair.

Becky has always been one of WWE’s most promising wrestlers and promos, but in a short period of time, she’s grown from being “very good” to someone who can truly be a “star”. That all comes down to the way she carries herself as a champion, because she’s made this program feel like the biggest deal in WWE. She holds her head up high, smugly grins when she speaks, and rudely interrupts those she doesn’t respect.

Lynch doesn’t hold back in or out of the ring anymore, and we’re seeing a whole different beast as a champion. Charlotte needs to get credit for being a great foil for Becky, too, and it seems like WWE fans could be treated to a special Evolution main event, if that’s indeed where this is headed.