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Hey, Lewis Howes here, and in this episode of The School of Greatness, I m joined by WWE superstar Becky Lynch.
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Today, Becky reveals her journey from career uncertainty to becoming a wrestling legend.
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She gets real about the struggles and triumphs of her career, balancing motherhood with being a top world athlete, and discusses her unique relationship with WWE superstar Seth Rollins.
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Now let s dive in.
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I think that s the thing is that you don t get confidence by thinking about having confidence, you know, you get confidence by action.
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Becky Lynch made WWE history in 2019 as the first woman to win a WrestleMania main event and she became a triple crown champion.
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I completely destroyed myself.
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I had this then sense of ego, like, look at how disciplined I can be.
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I am so much better than everybody because I have this discipline.
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But ultimately, I was dying on the inside.
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Then I got on TV.
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One of the worst debuts of all time.
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Really?
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And so I failed ethically, publicly.
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On TV?
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On TV.
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Ooh.
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But hey, if you can come back from that, you can come back from anything.
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Let s go.
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There is such a level of trust in what we do, and I think I broke that trust for several people, and then it just didn t feel good.
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It just didn t sit right with who Rebecca Quinn is.
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The Rock, he, um... What was the thing he said to you, maybe behind the scenes, backstage, that no one else got to really experience, but he said to you that impacted you?
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One of the things that he said to me, even saying it now, just makes me feel.
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That ll get me.
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Yeah, so.
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Welcome back, everyone at the School of Greatness.
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Very excited about our guest.
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We have the inspiring, the man, Becky Lynch in the house.
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Rebecca, good to see you.
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Welcome.
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Thank you for having me.
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Very excited about you being here, and big congrats on all your success.
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I love your story because
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You were not an athlete growing up, really.
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I think I even saw you were a flight attendant for a little while.
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You dropped out of college.
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You failed PE in high school.
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And yet, in 2019, you were named one of the top female athletes in the world, which is really cool.
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You re a WWE superstar, and you are the man.
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And I m just so glad that you re here because I got to connect for a few minutes beforehand.
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And I love seeing people like you with a good attitude, good energy, and a good heart win.
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Thank you.
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So congrats on everything.
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One thing I wanted to ask you, many things, but one of the things is around your belief in yourself.
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You came from Ireland.
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You got into wrestling at an early age.
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It sounds like you had a lot of challenges, like you were into a little bit of drugs, a little bit of alcohol, you were kind of like whatever with school.
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But eventually you got things in order and you became very disciplined at your craft and very focused on your dream.
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How did you learn to build confidence during a time of maybe not feeling that confident growing up?
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Gosh, I think that s the thing is that you don t get confidence by thinking about having confidence.
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You get confidence by action and I never had confidence before I started wrestling and I think that s why
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I was always trying to fit in with the kids that were drinking and that would make me cool and then I d be smoking and it would take the edge off from the self-consciousness and everything that was going on at home at the time and then when I was 15
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And I just failed PE.
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I was getting ready for my junior cert, which is, I m not sure what the equivalent is over here, but when you re 15, you re doing these exams in school.
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That at the time, they make it seem like if you fail these, your life is over.
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Really?
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But yeah, all the pressure that they put on you in school.
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This will determine the rest of your life.
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Yes, exactly.
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Where you go to school and college and everything else.
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And that s what I felt like.
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And at the time, even though I was a little degenerate and I wasn t doing good in school and I was drinking and I was smoking, I was doing everything that I shouldn t be doing.
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Like I still had ambition.
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I still wanted to do something good in my life.
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I still wanted to be a lawyer or something productive in society.
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And I realized on one random Monday when I wanted a beer, at 15, that I needed to turn my life around.
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I needed to do something different.
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That I couldn t keep going down this pathway of failing PE and just
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not applying myself to anything.
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And so I started looking up, like, different kickboxing things, because gyms weren t a thing in Ireland back then.
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There was, like, two or something.
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You know, there was this big gym, but it was too preppy.
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It was too preppy.
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And I was an alternative kid, you know, the ones with the black lipstick and the dog collars and all that kind of stuff.
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And so, you know, going to a gym just seemed too mainstream for me, too Jane Fonda.
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And so then one day I go into the computer room, because in 2002 everybody had a computer room, and my brother s looking up this website and it was called Hammerlock and it was this wrestling school over in the UK.
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And I was like, what are you doing there?
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And he was like, well, I was thinking about training as a wrestler.
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Instantly, I had this jealousy, this feeling of, I need to do that.
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And I was like, oh, you re going to go over there?
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And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And I was like, there s no way.
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There s no way my mom is going to let me go over to the UK to train.
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I m 15.
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I m also a degenerate.
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She s aware that I m going off the rails.
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And then the promoter there wrote back to him to let him know that there was two Irish lads that were going to be opening a school like an hour away from us on the train.
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And so that s how I found out about it.
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And he told me that.
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And I was like, oh, I want to go too.
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He was like, no, you re not going.
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You have to be 16.
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And I was like, I ll lie.
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And he was like, no, I don t want to have to look after my little sister.
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I was like, you won t have to.
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line and I went down there and I started and that was it.
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All of a sudden for the first time in my life I wanted to apply myself to something.
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I wanted to get better at something.
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I saw progress
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in each training session.
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And that built confidence, because not only was I applying myself and getting better at something and seeing results, but I also now had this community.
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And I think there was also this feeling of like, I m different, which, you know, I always felt a little different, you know, I wasn t a cool kid, even though I tried to be.
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But now I had this confidence in my difference, you know?
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And I was the only girl there too.
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I was the only girl in a group of lads and I was hanging with them, or maybe not, but I was there.
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I felt like I was.
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And so that gave me confidence that I could do this and I could set myself apart and there was something more to me.
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And then I just continued on there.
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I never thought, or not that I never thought,
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Maybe I had like this suppressed dream, but I still thought I was going to be a lawyer and do something realistic.
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Really?
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Until I was like 17.
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And it was the first time I had
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played the heel role, the bad guy role.
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And I was teaming with my brother.
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And when you re a heel, when you re the bad, you can do no wrong, because you can just have fun, you can taunt the crowds, you can be an idiot.
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And... That s your job.
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Yes.
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There s such freedom in that.
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There s such freedom in that.
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And I came back and I was like, this is, this is, this is what I need to do.
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This is what I m meant to do.
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This is what I m going to do.
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At 17?
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At 17.
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And then by 18, dropped out of college, moved over to Canada, wrestled around Canada, around America, around Japan, around Europe.
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My visa ran out from Canada, I had to move back in with my mom, and my mom, God bless her, like,
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She s only ever wanted the best for me.
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And the best in her eyes was not being a wrestler, especially back then, because what I wanted and what I visualized for myself was me being seen on par as The Rock, as Stone Cold C. Boston, as Mick Foley, as all these lads that I looked up to.
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But if you watched TV and you watched how the women were booked, there was lots of brown panties matches, there was mud wrestling matches.
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That wasn t anything I wanted to do.
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That was certainly nothing my mother wanted me to do.
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And so,
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There wasn t opportunities for women to really be stars back then when you started.
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Not in the way that I wanted to be.
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Not in the way that I wanted to be.
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And so I started looking at the women s promotions in Japan.
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And then I went over there and I wrestled in Japan.
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And I got assigned to this advertising agency over there that wanted to promote me as this big time wrestler.
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But then when I came home and I had to live with my mom again, she s gone.
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What s your plan?
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What s your plan?
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What s your plan?
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What s your plan?
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What s your plan?
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Because she always wanted a plan.
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But with wrestling, and I suppose any artistic endeavor, I genuinely think wrestling is an artistic endeavor, you can t necessarily plan it.
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Why not?
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Why can t you plan it?
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You can have a rough plan, but so much is out of your control, you know?
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You can work towards what you want.
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You can t decide when you re going to get on somebody s radar what they re going to be looking for.
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You know, I think it s the same with, say for example, an actor.
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An actor can do the best audition of their life, but they might have brown hair and the person is looking for blonde hair.
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And so they see this great audition, but that s not what they were looking for on that day.
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And so I started to believe that if I looked a certain way that that would give me, that that was my plan.
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That is how I would get there because all these women looked like figure competitors and they were beautiful models and you know it was
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just a regular average looking girl with a bit of a pair of biceps on me and decent set of shoulders but like at the time you know there was enhancements that were standardly involved in the hiring process and I didn t have them nor did I want to get them.
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And so I thought, well, if I have abs and if I m ripped and if I look this way, then they ll want me.
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And so I kind of compare it to the Survivor song and on the eye of the tiger and you change your passion for glory.
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Because then my focus shifted from just how I looked and how that would make if I change how I am to make them want me as opposed to
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being true to myself.
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Interesting.
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How long did you... And them wanting... Wanting you for who you are.
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For who I am.
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So how long did you transform into someone you think they would want?
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How long was that process for?
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Well, it didn t last very long because I completely destroyed myself.
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So I started bodybuilding then.
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I was like, oh, let me sign up for this bodybuilding competition.
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And if I can do well in this bodybuilding competition, then they ll see that.
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Just the logic that goes through my head.
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They ll see that and then they ll be like, oh yeah, let s sign her.
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Like she ll be on a magazine or something and we ll sign her that way.
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How old were you then?
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19.
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I was 19 then.
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And I mean, maybe it would have worked if I committed to it.
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But anyway, the point was, I didn t know what I was doing.
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I was with this lad who had never trained a girl before.
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He was a bodybuilder himself, but he was a giant man.
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and a giant, giant man and who had done many competitions and he was training me and my diet, then my diet was all over the place and then he put me onto this other guy who gave me this other diet which then I just became a maceate and I was trying to wrestle around Japan and all this stuff and my body was just hurting but like I was loving how I looked in the mirror because I had these abs and I was
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I was disciplined and my focus was what I was going to eat and how I was going to train.
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I had this then sense of ego, like look at how disciplined I can be.
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I am so much better than everybody because I have this discipline.
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But ultimately I was dying on the inside because I had no energy.
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My moods were all over the place.
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I was like leering at cookbooks of what I was going to eat when this diet finished.
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And ultimately, I ended up not being able to make it past 10 weeks of this diet.
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There was two more weeks till the competition.
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The guy who was trying to me suggested a cheat meal, and that was it.
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Then I just went completely off the rails and couldn t get back on.
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Wow.
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And then that then became an unhealthy relationship with food for years.
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Really?
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Years and years and years.
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Completely destroyed how I looked at myself and everything like that and how I valued myself.
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How did you value yourself then?
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on how I looked.
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From somebody who had gone from valuing myself on my substance and what I brought to the table in terms of wrestling and my craft, I was then just now, I was just conforming to what I thought
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thought they wanted and what society wanted.
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But by then, then I was like, I don t even know if I want to wrestle anymore.
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Maybe that dream is over.
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It s time to be realistic and get a real job.
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Then I ended up being a flight attendant.
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So you were wrestling, you were pursuing professional wrestling, I guess, at the time.
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Yeah.
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Then you quit to be a flight attendant?
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Well, then I was like, well, then I started thinking like, oh, well, maybe I ll be a fitness model, because that ll be easy on my body.
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But I couldn t maintain it, because I was so hungry.
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I just loved eating.
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I loved eating so much.
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And so then I became bulimic and all of these things.
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And it was really just going from being somebody who cared
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about their mind, who thought their mind was powerful, to just thinking that I was a set of abs and a pair of arms, you know?
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And that was where I put my focus.
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It took a long time to shake that.
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How old were you when you shook it?
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35.
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Wow.
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No, no, no, not quite.
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But like, I think it was a process.
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It was a process.
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It was a process because I was a flight attendant, hated it, but was still trying.
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I then did the bodybuilding competition.
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I came third, by the way, out of four.
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It sounded impressive.
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So I did the Buddy Budden competition.
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It was like standing up on stage.
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Oh my goodness, I m so glad they just, everybody didn t have an iPhone back then.
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But I did that and I was just like, why am I standing?
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in my underwear showing people my muscles, like this doesn t feel like me, you know, because for some people, for some bodybuilders, it s such an artistic thing.
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They are sculpting their body.
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They love it.
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They love the discipline of it.
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But for me, it was some sort of a means to an end, some sort of way for me to be validated by society or something that
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And it just didn t feel authentic and true to me.
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It just felt like I was, yeah, I was just trying to be something that I wasn t.
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It was just consumed by my body will be my vessel too.
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But if it looks a certain way, then I ll be successful and whatever.
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And then I started to realize that the part of wrestling that I loved, it wasn t just the training, it was the performance.
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I loved the performance.
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the crowd, I loved the creativity, I loved the storytelling and I think throughout my whole life I found that storytelling is what draws me more than anything like in school I was terrible at every subject except English and history because it was just stories like it was it was hearing stories and learning about these stories
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And I rocked at those subjects.
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Terrible at everything else.
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And so then I went back to school to study acting.
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Is this in London now?
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This is in Dublin.
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Yeah, I m kind of all over the place.
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But at 22, I went back to college, studied acting in Dublin, and then did a year in Chicago.
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Wow.
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And that felt like, okay, now I m back.
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Now I m back a little bit.
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And then it seemed more like I was part of a creative endeavor.
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Really?
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When you re doing
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the acting.
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Yes, yeah.
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When did you get back into wrestling then?
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So it s funny, because throughout this whole time, this whole time, I m just going, oh, but I felt like this was my purpose, and I gave up on it, but I can t go back, and my mom doesn t want me to go back, and how am I gonna go back, because I ve burned bridges, and I don t even know if I can do it, and then I had this ego of like, I was good then, and now I ll have to go back to training, and what if I suck, and all of these things,
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And I would constantly try and then back off.
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And I would dip my toe in and back off.
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And I was... I just couldn t let it go.
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I could not let it go.
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It would never leave me.
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And sometimes I would be like, okay, I m done.
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I m done.
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And like, did you see the wrestler?
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The movie with Mickey Rourke.
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It was incredible.
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Incredible.
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Yeah.
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Incredible.
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So sad.
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So sad.
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Very sad.
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So sad.
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And I remember seeing that and being like, see, this is why I left it.
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This is why.
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It s so sad.
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It s such a sad business.
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That would be me, you know?
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This old star that s now trying to figure out his life and working in a deli or something, right?
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Yeah.
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I was like, ah, I did the right thing leaving.
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And then I would see something.
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You know, or like I had friends in it that were still doing it.
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Really?
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And I tried to distance myself from it.
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But but there was always a pole and I ve kept journals my whole life and like if I just go back and read it, it s just there s always like a wrestling pole.
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Wow.
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And I just never, I never, I didn t know how I would get back there.
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And that s why I say, you know, sometimes you can t plan or you can plan, you can try and force things.
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But sometimes the timing of the universe or whatever you want to put it up to is wild.
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It s just wild.
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Because when I finished my acting degree and I was trying to get acting work in Ireland, I ended up getting stunt work on the Vikings, the TV show.
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And and I was like, I don t have a clue what I m doing.
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So they
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They were like, you can come down and do a stint.
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And I was like, yeah, I ll do that.
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But I gotta figure something out.
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So I went down to a wrestling school.
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And it was the guy that was teaching the wrestling school, Joe, that said, would you think about going for a WWE tryout?
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Because I think you d get it.
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Yeah, that was it.
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And he had just gotten he had just gotten accepted.
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He him and his girlfriend at the time, Rachel, who was one of my best friends, they d both gotten accepted to WWE.
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And he suggested me go, even though at this time I had decided I was going to move back to New York.
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I lived in New York briefly in between my first and second year of college.
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I was going to move back there.
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I was going to pursue, you know, acting, trying to get into more theater.
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And when he said that, it was just like, this is it.
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It was just this pull.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was this instinct.
2
SPEAKER_01
After feeling like I was forcing everything for so many years.
2
SPEAKER_01
But the thing is, if I had gotten signed when I was 19, when I wanted to,
2
SPEAKER_01
I wouldn t have ended up where I am now, you know, like I would have been mouthy.
2
SPEAKER_01
I wouldn t have understood life.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would have had this ego.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would have messed everything up, probably burnt more bridges.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then I just would have been who knows what would have happened.
2
SPEAKER_01
But all of these other things that were happening and I was as I was trying to figure out life and I was getting all this experience helped so much.
2
SPEAKER_01
But then I ended up
2
SPEAKER_01
in the perfect place at the perfect time with the perfect people and with this drive to change things and change how the women were booked.
2
SPEAKER_01
And all of a sudden what I wanted to do back then didn t seem so crazy now.
2
SPEAKER_01
For a few years it still seemed a little crazy but then we got there, we got there and we re still getting there.
2
SPEAKER_02
So you do this scene as a stunt person for the TV show and they re like okay let s put you through some training to be able to do the stunt training and it brings you back to the wrestling roots.
2
SPEAKER_02
And he s like, oh, I think you can make this, I guess this is a school for the WWE, or is it like a tryout?
2
SPEAKER_01
So you go for a tryout, and then if you get that tryout, they ll give you a contract to NXT, which is the developmental brand, and then you can go and learn to be a WWE superstar.
2
SPEAKER_02
So he said, do the tryout, I think you ll make it, and go into kind of the underground, the up-and-coming.
2
SPEAKER_01
And as soon as he said it, I was like, oh yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
And what happened?
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
I got it.
2
SPEAKER_02
The trial, you got it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I got it.
2
SPEAKER_01
But like, I went in there with this mindset of, there is no way they will not want me.
2
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s no way.
2
SPEAKER_01
Look at my experience.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m like a full trained actor, but I ve also had this experience of main eventing in Japan.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m a stunt woman.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, there s no way.
2
SPEAKER_01
How would they not want me?
2
SPEAKER_01
I ve done a bodybuilding competition.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right, right, right.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ve like amassed all of this wacky experience.
2
SPEAKER_02
Interesting.
2
SPEAKER_01
To where I was like super confident, there is no way that these people are refusing me a contract.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then I was also like, I will die before I quit.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_01
Because they put you through all these drills, which... And a lot of people quit.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, they gave up.
2
SPEAKER_02
How many people came in when you were there, or how many people were there when you were there, versus, I guess, a few years later?
2
SPEAKER_01
So there was a triad, well the triad there was 30 people, two people got offered a contract.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then when I started, I was the first class of this brand new performance center that they d opened in Orlando.
2
SPEAKER_01
What year is this?
2
SPEAKER_01
This is 2013.
2
SPEAKER_01
And like, yeah, I remember my first day and they were like, look to the person left and look to the person right because they re not going to make it.
2
SPEAKER_01
One of you isn t going to make it.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, it was it was the likelihood is only one of you are going to make it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Of course, many, many of us made it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And many, many of us made it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And some have come and gone over the over the years.
2
SPEAKER_01
But yeah, I was like, oh.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t know that I m going to make it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Really?
2
SPEAKER_01
Well no like uh outwardly outwardly I could be like I could see why why I wouldn t make it but there was still this
2
SPEAKER_01
I was so scared of not making it and I was so scared of failing.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was so scared of failing.
2
SPEAKER_01
But there was just this little voice of like, this is what you re meant to do.
2
SPEAKER_01
You will main event wrestling.
2
SPEAKER_01
And with absolutely no reason to believe it, by the way, it was terrible.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like when I came back, I was so mind.
2
SPEAKER_01
Can I curse on you?
2
SPEAKER_01
Sure.
2
SPEAKER_01
That I was so insecure because now I was with the most beautiful women I d ever seen.
2
SPEAKER_01
These giant behemoths of men that just looked like superstars.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then there was me, the perfectly average girl from Dublin who just felt like she had something.
2
SPEAKER_01
Felt like I had something.
2
SPEAKER_01
I feel like I have something to offer.
2
SPEAKER_01
Something in here, you know?
2
SPEAKER_02
How many people are there?
2
SPEAKER_02
How many men and women are at this first day?
2
SPEAKER_01
Gosh, I think there was like, there was maybe 10 women.
2
SPEAKER_01
and like 50 dudes or something like that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
We were really outnumbered back then.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_01
Really outnumbered back then.
2
SPEAKER_01
But yeah, yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was like, oh, yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
No, no.
2
SPEAKER_02
How did you not lose your confidence going in?
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I did.
2
SPEAKER_02
You did?
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, completely lost.
2
SPEAKER_01
Gone.
2
SPEAKER_01
As soon as I walked in that building, woof, gone.
2
SPEAKER_01
Gone.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was gone.
2
SPEAKER_01
Anything that I had in the tryout was completely gone and just continued to just be dwindled away.
2
SPEAKER_01
as I went through the first first few months into I would say the first year the first year and it wasn t until I had this breakdown and I remember crying from the depths of my soul to my friend Frenchie
2
SPEAKER_01
It was April.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was April 2014.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I just felt like I was doing everything I could to become better.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I wasn t.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, I wasn t becoming better.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, I was just in my own way.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I remember another one of my friends, his wrestling name was Aidan English, and I d actually gone to college with him in Chicago, randomly acting colleges.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wrestling s a little village, you know, you just meet people, they just pop up.
2
SPEAKER_01
And like, I remember him saying, yeah, sometimes you have a bad day, maybe you ll have a bad week, but nobody has a bad month.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was like, buddy, I ve had a bad seven months, like I m, I m screwed.
2
SPEAKER_01
And, but I remember just thinking, like, I m not a bad person.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, I m,
3
SPEAKER_01
I suck right now but I love this and at least I m not a bad person and for some weird reason that gave me a bit more confidence
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t know why.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t know why.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think because maybe there s this old thought of wrestling or maybe any sport or endeavor that s competitive where you kind of have to be cutthroat.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I hate that.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t like that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Especially in something like wrestling where
3
SPEAKER_01
You re not doing it on your own.
3
SPEAKER_01
You re not making history on your own.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everything is a team effort.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, you want to be the best.
3
SPEAKER_01
But like rising tides and all that jazz.
3
SPEAKER_00
Everything s a collaboration.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everything s a collaboration.
3
SPEAKER_00
Even when you re competing, you re collaborating.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I wasn t going to be able to change the trajectory of women s wrestling by myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
I needed a group of women, which I was there with, who all had the same goal.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was myself, Sasha.
3
SPEAKER_01
Charlotte and Bailey and we all and Paige and Emma and other girls that were there and we all wanted this different future for the sport and we re all working together but there was this feeling of okay I m not willing to cut anybody s throat to get on top that made me feel like okay all right well maybe
3
SPEAKER_01
That mentality will help me and I don t need to be the biggest name in the business.
3
SPEAKER_01
I just need to do this.
3
SPEAKER_01
I just need to make a living out of it.
3
SPEAKER_01
be able to tell stories and wrestle.
3
SPEAKER_00
In that first year, I guess, you said you had this breakdown in April 2014.
3
SPEAKER_00
That was 10 years ago.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh my goodness.
3
SPEAKER_00
Isn t that crazy?
3
SPEAKER_00
A decade ago.
3
SPEAKER_00
Next month will be a decade.
3
SPEAKER_00
Where did you feel like you were not connecting with in that first year?
3
SPEAKER_00
Was it the story aspect, the athlete aspect?
3
SPEAKER_01
In-ring, in-ring, in-ring, in-ring.
3
SPEAKER_01
The story part was what helped me.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s what saved my job.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s what kept you in it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because Dusty Rhodes
3
SPEAKER_01
was the promo teacher at the time.
3
SPEAKER_01
And Dusty loved his broken toys.
3
SPEAKER_01
The ones that were rough around the edges, but he saw that had some soul or something about them.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just a little something, just a spark.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he tried to bring that out.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so I didn t know.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know who I wanted to be.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everybody was like, find a character, find a character, find a character.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I d try out all these stupid characters.
3
SPEAKER_01
None of them worked.
3
SPEAKER_01
And of course none of them worked.
3
SPEAKER_01
They were all awful.
3
SPEAKER_01
But it was the trying.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was the being able to put yourself out there and throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
Nothing stuck.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I tried and I kept trying and I think he valued the creativity more than the outcome.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because if somebody came in, they were the total package.
3
SPEAKER_01
I can point to, there s a wrestler called LA Knight at the time who
3
SPEAKER_01
right now, is making big waves in wrestling, but at the time he was down there, we started on the same day, and he had everything.
3
SPEAKER_01
He had it just down.
3
SPEAKER_01
He had it down, you know?
3
SPEAKER_01
So, Dusty had no more... He was smooth, he was great, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Dusty was like, yeah, you re great, but he had no more work to do, because he already had his act down, whereas somebody like me was completely lost, completely screwed.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I think there was a combination of Dusty and William Regal,
3
SPEAKER_01
That saved my job many, many times because they saw that there was something, something there in this Irish girl that had not a clue.
3
SPEAKER_01
That had not a clue.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because I didn t look like any of these other girls that were like stunners.
3
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t great in the ring, but there was something when I talked that... Was unique, was different.
3
SPEAKER_01
That was unique, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Interesting.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, I mean, from that moment, I guess, now are they, is it like six days a week training?
3
SPEAKER_01
It was, so it was like five days a week and then we would do three shows.
3
SPEAKER_01
So you d do one day, Tuesday you would do a school session, which is you d watch matches, but then there d be extra training.
3
SPEAKER_00
Gosh, that would have been so fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
The watching the matches?
3
SPEAKER_00
Just, I mean, that whole experience, just like being a full-time athlete, training, watching, testing, trying, just like,
3
SPEAKER_01
In hindsight.
3
SPEAKER_00
In hindsight, great.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I remember that.
3
SPEAKER_01
That was one of the things that Triple H would always say, you know, because he was head of developmental and he was always, enjoy this, enjoy this, there s never going to be.
3
SPEAKER_01
And there was times when I would feel like I was in a Rocky movie and, you know, like I get that, like.
3
SPEAKER_01
And you could enjoy it, but the other part of it was not sleeping because you were always scared that you were going to be on the chopping block.
3
SPEAKER_00
You could be cut like every week.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
There was, we called it Black Friday.
3
SPEAKER_01
And you d come in, you d get pulled into the office, and that was it, and your dream would be over.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I had several friends that got cut, and it was devastating.
3
SPEAKER_01
And my friend Joe, the reason that I got signed in the first place, who I lived with, he got cut.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so that was a whole new world to navigate.
3
SPEAKER_01
But so once the fear of not being cut,
3
SPEAKER_01
subsided, then you could enjoy it more.
3
SPEAKER_01
But when you were scared that you were going to get fired every other day, not enjoyable.
3
SPEAKER_00
Not enjoyable at all.
3
SPEAKER_00
So when did you feel like, I m making it?
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, when did you feel like, okay, I m actually making it, I don t know, in my sport, in society, culturally, financially?
3
SPEAKER_00
When was the moment from 10 years ago to like, I m arriving?
3
SPEAKER_01
So I think it was shortly after that, shortly after the breakdown, shortly after the breakdown of, okay, wait, I m not a bad person.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I remember coming into promo class, not doing a character, but just cutting an angry promo of, of, of, I am sick of the, I put in all of this work.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have done this, I have done that, I have done this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
3
SPEAKER_01
And and and and this is why I deserve a shot.
3
SPEAKER_01
This is why I need to be on TV.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I remember cutting that promo and then like people like seeing a bit more of an edge and it wasn t just a hi, yeah, please don t fire me.
3
SPEAKER_01
Hi, hi, hi, hi.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m so happy to be here.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like there was there was this there was now this weird confidence and this I wasn t so meek anymore.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like I had a chip on my shoulder and I was ready to fight.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then things started to happen there.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I got on TV, one of the worst debuts of all time.
3
SPEAKER_00
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh my God, terrible.
3
SPEAKER_01
What happened?
3
SPEAKER_01
I came out there doing the stupid Irish jig, and I can t do the Irish jig.
3
SPEAKER_01
You tried to dance.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Tried.
3
SPEAKER_01
You tried to do the Irish dance.
3
SPEAKER_01
I tried to do the Irish dance.
3
SPEAKER_01
hammed up as possible.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like shameless, just shameless.
3
SPEAKER_01
But like at the time, there was this girl, Emma, she was doing this wacky dance and it was like, okay, well like wackiness is getting people on TV.
3
SPEAKER_01
There was just wacky characters left, right and center.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because that was the thing about the developmental system down there.
3
SPEAKER_01
You got the chance to be wacky and you got the chance to try things and fail.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so I failed epically.
3
SPEAKER_01
publicly on TV that lives on forever that will never be erased from history.
3
SPEAKER_01
But hey, if you can come back from that, you can come back from anything.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so, the greatest part of it was like, I didn t even realize how awful it was until like a few nights later.
3
SPEAKER_01
And like, I remember seeing Triple H and being like, what did you think?
3
SPEAKER_01
As if he was like, oh yeah, that was amazing.
3
SPEAKER_00
You dominated the audience.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
But the audience loved me.
3
SPEAKER_01
They were still, they were real positive to me.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think, come on, like I was a little idiot.
3
SPEAKER_01
I suppose you couldn t really boo me, like, God bless her.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, what did she think?
3
SPEAKER_01
What was she thinking?
3
SPEAKER_01
Look at this fool.
3
SPEAKER_01
But yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I tried various different things.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I remember after that and then just having this different perspective and this gratitude that I was able to
3
SPEAKER_01
pay my bills.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the food in my fridge was bought by the money that I d made from wrestling.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the roof over my head was paid for by the money that I d made from wrestling.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was driving a car with the money that I d made from wrestling.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I remember just driving with just tears of gratitude that I could afford these things with the money that I d made from wrestling.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because
3
SPEAKER_01
I ve never felt like money that I ve made from wrestling is real money you know it just doesn t
4
SPEAKER_01
feel like real money because I m not working.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m having fun.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love what I do.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love what I do.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And sometimes it s hard and sometimes
4
SPEAKER_01
there s so many opinions and there s, you know, like our wrestling fans, they re so vocal and they re so great.
4
SPEAKER_01
But you know, you take the good with the bad.
4
SPEAKER_01
So sometimes you re getting lots of negative opinions on what you re doing or you re getting, and so, or you think creative should be this way or you should be booked that way.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so you can get bogged down in those things.
4
SPEAKER_01
When it comes to the creative process,
4
SPEAKER_01
and I m putting together a match or I am thinking about a promo.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t think there s anything bar like playing with my child that makes me feel more alive.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like I just, I love it so much.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I love just like something coming to me and building from that.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, just these little seeds of ideas.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like what if we tried this?
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, what if we tried this?
4
SPEAKER_01
Maybe this will work and maybe it ll be awful.
4
SPEAKER_01
But that s the greatest thing about wrestling is that
4
SPEAKER_01
because we do it 52 weeks a year, because we re on the road constantly, you get to try and fail so often, but you get to try and succeed so often too.
4
SPEAKER_01
And you never know which way it s going to go, but if you keep trying, you know, sometimes you hit gold.
4
SPEAKER_01
Sometimes you don t.
4
SPEAKER_01
Sometimes you think something s gold and other people don t.
4
SPEAKER_01
But that s art, right?
4
SPEAKER_01
You do the art for what you want to do.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then whatever the audience takes out of it is up to them.
4
SPEAKER_00
Big WWE fan, Rick Rubin, we had on the show.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love Rick.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he talks about what you just said, making art for you.
4
SPEAKER_00
And writing in your journal, in your diary, the things that are meaningful for you, your art,
4
SPEAKER_00
not worrying what people are going to think about it, but having the courage to put it out there and allowing others to see it as well.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s like part of the process.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he s a big fan, isn t he?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, he s a huge wrestling fan.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And his book is... It s amazing.
4
SPEAKER_00
Have you read it?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it s so good.
4
SPEAKER_01
read it, listen to it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, he s great.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I love because I just like sometimes I just I m like, OK, what do I need right now?
4
SPEAKER_00
Universe, tell me.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then, of course, it s exactly what you need in that moment.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love it.
4
SPEAKER_01
But it is it is that.
4
SPEAKER_01
But the other thing about wrestling, which is so different from any other artistic endeavor, like writing a book,
4
SPEAKER_01
You have it.
4
SPEAKER_01
You can take your time.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, if you re writing a script or whatever, maybe like a movie or a song, if you have an album.
4
SPEAKER_01
But say if you re writing a song, you can just take your time to do that.
4
SPEAKER_01
We ain t got time.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, this show is going to go live on TV at 8pm.
4
SPEAKER_01
And if at 7pm you don t have something, you better find something because we re going to go live.
4
SPEAKER_00
Have you ever not felt like you were prepared before going live and having to come up with something on the spot?
4
SPEAKER_00
a million times.
4
SPEAKER_00
Really?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because now it s different.
4
SPEAKER_01
But it used to be, back in the day, the show would be getting rewritten while the show was going on, live, in front of people.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you would have like an idea of what you re going to say, and then somebody comes up, no, no, no, no, no, you have to say this, find a way to put this in.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so you re okay going out the curtain and changing things.
4
SPEAKER_00
Really?
4
SPEAKER_00
As you re going out, you have to evolve what you re going to say.
4
SPEAKER_01
And sometimes, and that s happened like several times, but it s really exciting.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s scary, but exciting at the same time.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because it s chaos.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it s chaos.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so whatever comes out is great.
4
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because you can t, it s just organic.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s just in the moment.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s great.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s the ultimate yes and experience.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love it.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s so exciting.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you don t know what s gonna happen, but something s gonna happen.
4
SPEAKER_01
There s been so many times when I ve had like,
4
SPEAKER_01
we re putting together a match but we haven t had the time and so like you re going out and you think that you have something but you re not sure and you re not sure if everybody else is on the same page but you go out there and something happens like something s gonna happen because something has to happen.
4
SPEAKER_00
And based on what happens they might rewrite the next thing and the next thing and it just keeps evolving huh?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because you never go out there and nothing happens.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because that can t happen.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because that would be weird.
4
SPEAKER_01
People aren t just going to stand in the rain and wait to be told what to do.
4
SPEAKER_00
Someone s going to say something and hit someone and it s going to the next person.
4
SPEAKER_01
And we re just going to go because that s what has to happen.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it s such a...
4
SPEAKER_00
They ll throw you out there and you just figure it out, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s such an exciting, addictive business.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ve told you I ve never been to a show, so I ve got to come and watch you.
4
SPEAKER_00
You ve got to come.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s the best.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m curious, when is there a moment, and you ve had so many different matches over the last 10, 15 years, when was the match or the moment that you were in the most flow?
4
SPEAKER_00
That you felt like 100% authentic to you,
4
SPEAKER_00
that the words were flowing, the movement was flowing, like it was all connecting and the audience was connected to you.
4
SPEAKER_01
Gosh, I suppose there s several.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like recently, recently I had a match with Trish Stratus, it was a cage match.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it just felt like, yeah, I m so present.
4
SPEAKER_01
Everything that needs to happen is happening.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that was back in September.
4
SPEAKER_01
So that s like, there s like these big matches that stand out.
4
SPEAKER_01
Cause it, you know, it ll often happen on live events and different things, but there s big,
4
SPEAKER_01
moments, these big events built around it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then a match that I had with Bianca Belair, WrestleMania 38, one of my favorite matches, one of my favorite stories leading up to it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I was the bad guy, and I loved it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I loved it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was having so much fun.
4
SPEAKER_01
And she s this great athlete and this great baby face, and she can do everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I was getting to... Because I d robbed the title from her, essentially.
4
SPEAKER_01
I d underhandedly beat her, and I was going to be able to give her back.
4
SPEAKER_01
her championship, she would beat me for it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t planning it.
4
SPEAKER_01
She would beat me for it.
4
SPEAKER_01
But it was that, you know, her redemption story.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that was so fun to be a part of.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then there was another match that I had in 2018 with Charlotte Flair as the last woman standing.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that one stands out because I remember it being the first match where I felt confident in it, in the moment.
4
SPEAKER_01
I can do no wrong.
4
SPEAKER_00
Really?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
What year is this?
4
SPEAKER_00
It s 2018.
4
SPEAKER_00
2018, okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so there s like big ones that stand out over time, but yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love all these stories you have in your book, and I want people to get this.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s called The Man, Not Your Average, Average Girl.
4
SPEAKER_00
Make sure you guys pick up a copy of this because there s so many beautiful stories in here.
4
SPEAKER_00
And one of the things I wanted to ask you about, this you talked about is,
4
SPEAKER_00
And we mentioned it off camera beforehand that I think it was 2019, you were kind of at the top of your, I guess, game in the industry.
4
SPEAKER_00
But you also felt like you weren t 100% authentic to you.
4
SPEAKER_00
Is that right?
4
SPEAKER_00
Or you weren t being the person you fully wanted to be?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Was that related to just things that the industry wanted you to do or things you felt like you were to do?
4
SPEAKER_00
Or is that other personal stuff that was holding you back?
4
SPEAKER_00
playing a part in that?
4
SPEAKER_01
Maybe a bit of everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it was coming from underneath, right?
4
SPEAKER_01
It was coming from being this underdog that the audience loved because she was smiley and happy and would do creative things online because she was never getting an opportunity on TV.
4
SPEAKER_01
But even though I wouldn t get opportunities on TV necessarily,
4
SPEAKER_01
I was always doing stuff with the digital team or on social media.
4
SPEAKER_01
I would create these little stories, these stupid little videos.
4
SPEAKER_00
Skits and stories.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that I thought were funny and entertaining.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so that the audience could get to know who I was.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then they wanted to turn me heel.
4
SPEAKER_01
They wanted to turn me into a bad guy.
4
SPEAKER_01
against Charlotte Flair, who at the time was, she was a good guy, but she, you know, she s the daughter of Ric Flair and she had multiple title opportunities and was seen very much as a chosen one.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so when they were going to turn me heel, I knew, she knew, kind of a lot of people knew this wasn t going to be a heel turn, this was going to be
4
SPEAKER_01
a mega baby face turn for me because now I would get this attitude and this shoulder chip and all that kind of stuff but I think and that worked to a certain point because I would rely on social media things a lot and
5
SPEAKER_01
And then I think a kind of...
5
SPEAKER_01
started to put stuff out there into the world and onto the Internet.
5
SPEAKER_01
Whereas I would justify that it s business and this is making people talk and it s whatever.
5
SPEAKER_01
But I know it hurt people s feelings, the people that weren t in on it.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s a different thing when you re in the ring or when you re cutting promos and stuff like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, but this is what people want.
5
SPEAKER_01
They want me to be like this, but me as a person.
5
SPEAKER_01
didn t necessarily feel, I didn t feel good about that, and I would always justify it, but it left me feeling icky, I suppose.
5
SPEAKER_00
Interesting.
5
SPEAKER_00
What changed?
5
SPEAKER_00
Until what moment?
5
SPEAKER_00
Until what moment?
5
SPEAKER_00
What do you mean?
5
SPEAKER_00
When did you change that?
5
SPEAKER_00
Where did I stop that?
5
SPEAKER_00
How long was that for?
5
SPEAKER_01
It was until I went out and had my child.
5
SPEAKER_00
Really?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so it was like from, I would say,
5
SPEAKER_01
mid-2019 then I just felt like it was just forced.
5
SPEAKER_01
It all felt very forced and I didn t have formidable opponents necessarily.
5
SPEAKER_01
I didn t have people that were built up for me on the back side so I was trying to
5
SPEAKER_01
I was trying to, like, I was the champion, I had this historical moment of being the first woman to main event WrestleMania, but then my first opponent was somebody who the audience didn t know, who was quite green, and, you know, none of this was her fault, but it shouldn t have been my first opponent.
5
SPEAKER_01
So, just then, things just didn t feel like they were right, and, you know, I felt like
5
SPEAKER_01
I was still trying the social media thing that just felt inauthentic.
5
SPEAKER_01
I felt like I put out some stuff that I wish I didn t.
5
SPEAKER_01
I just wish I didn t put that out there.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because, you know, social media can be a great tool, but also can be horribly negative.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it can cost real relationships if people aren t in on it.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so I didn t like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think whatever, I will always say, whatever you want to say about me, whatever you want to say about me is fair game.
5
SPEAKER_01
If we can make money on TV, let s make money.
5
SPEAKER_01
But not everybody s like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
I know not everybody s like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so you have to, there is such a level of trust in what we do.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I think I broke that trust for several people.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it just didn t feel good.
5
SPEAKER_01
It just didn t sit right with who Rebecca Quinn is.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so even though I could justify Becky Lynch, it s business, it s business, it s business.
5
SPEAKER_01
At the end of the day, my gut said no.
5
SPEAKER_01
My gut was no when I was going against it and it felt inauthentic.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then I went and had my daughter and then I haven t relied on that since.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I felt just so much better, so much lighter.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t put stock in it.
5
SPEAKER_01
I tell my stories on TV.
5
SPEAKER_01
I tell them in the ring, I tell them with my promos, I don t need to be tweeting mean stuff at people on a random Sunday afternoon, you know what I mean?
5
SPEAKER_00
You talk about your daughter, having your daughter, and also kind of the fear and insecurity you had about, I guess, telling the WWE about being pregnant and how is this gonna affect your career.
5
SPEAKER_00
How did you navigate that, you know,
5
SPEAKER_00
It s just hot.
5
SPEAKER_00
Did you think you would still have a career if you had a child or had you seen someone do this before?
5
SPEAKER_01
No.
5
SPEAKER_01
That was the thing.
5
SPEAKER_01
I d never seen somebody do it before.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so that s why I felt like I had to do it.
5
SPEAKER_01
Interesting.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wait a minute.
5
SPEAKER_01
Why should I have to choose?
5
SPEAKER_01
You know, why should I have to choose?
5
SPEAKER_01
Apart from the obvious point of time off, but people get injured all the time.
5
SPEAKER_01
You can tear your ACL and you re out for a year.
5
SPEAKER_01
So why can t I be out for a year because I bring a child into the world.
5
SPEAKER_01
Stuff happens.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so stuff is going to happen.
5
SPEAKER_01
And this is a new world.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re gonna have to find a way to make it happen so that women can still be superstars, still be entertainers, still be on top, but also be mothers if they want to be.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know?
5
SPEAKER_01
That was my feeling.
5
SPEAKER_01
Like, why not?
5
SPEAKER_01
Why can t I?
5
SPEAKER_01
And so for better or worse, I was going to be the crash test dummy.
5
SPEAKER_01
But I just felt like, all right, I ve changed the game in one way.
5
SPEAKER_01
Obviously not by myself with a lot of help.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know, I ve been part of this change.
5
SPEAKER_01
Let me continue to be part of change.
5
SPEAKER_01
Let me push some...
5
SPEAKER_00
Some boundaries and see what you can create.
5
SPEAKER_01
Let s see what happens.
5
SPEAKER_01
Let me make life more hard on myself, but also way better on myself because now I have another purpose.
5
SPEAKER_01
And life is just so much better.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s way better now, huh?
5
SPEAKER_00
So much better.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, you talk about it here also going through different relationships, personal relationships that didn t work out, that you were stuck in and felt like you should have been out of much sooner.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was telling you before that I ve probably done that five or six times in my life where I stayed in relationships too long when I knew, trying to force them when I knew it wasn t really the right thing for either of us.
5
SPEAKER_00
When did you meet your husband?
5
SPEAKER_00
Did you think you could be in a relationship with someone in the business as well?
5
SPEAKER_00
And what is the thing you love about him the most?
5
SPEAKER_01
So many things.
5
SPEAKER_01
I met him first in 2014.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was an extra.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was an extra and he was part of The Shield, which was like the fricking Backstreet Boys of wrestling.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know what I mean?
5
SPEAKER_01
Like he was a major star.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I remember just like standing around there awkwardly like, hi, hi, hi, trying to introduce myself there.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then this guy comes over to me and it s Seth Rollins and he introduces himself and he says, hi, I m Colby.
5
SPEAKER_01
What s your story?
5
SPEAKER_01
And then I m just like, blah.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I just like vomit all these words and my life history up until that point.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I just felt so comfortable talking to him.
5
SPEAKER_01
But that was just my friend.
5
SPEAKER_01
That was just, you know, that was that was Seth Rollins, who was just such a great, nice guy who was so down to earth, just mega star on TV, but was just really nice to me.
5
SPEAKER_01
And over the years then we built up this friendship and I always just used to get so excited to see him.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
And like, you know, like he would always, I would always go up and tell him a stupid joke and he would always tell me I was the worst and then walk off.
5
SPEAKER_01
I just loved those interactions, it was great.
5
SPEAKER_01
And we became closer and he was always there for me and he was such a good friend.
5
SPEAKER_01
Then he was so smart about wrestling so I would go to him for wrestling advice and everything.
5
SPEAKER_01
But one of us was always in a relationship.
5
SPEAKER_01
And also I never wanted to get involved with any wrestlers.
5
SPEAKER_01
I did not want to get involved with any wrestlers because that would be bad news and what would happen if we broke up.
5
SPEAKER_01
Right.
5
SPEAKER_01
Inevitably breaks up.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then in 2019, early 2019, we started talking a bit more.
5
SPEAKER_01
He had just broken up with his girlfriend.
5
SPEAKER_01
I had just broken up with somebody I d been seeing for a short little fling.
5
SPEAKER_01
and you know I was like the man now and I was like feeling myself I was single Becky I was you know crushing it yeah I was crushing it you know I was having fun I was free and so like we started talking and I was like yeah I can have my fun
5
SPEAKER_01
with this cock guy.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then we started seeing each other a little bit, but I knew that he was like, wanted to sow his wild oats and all this.
5
SPEAKER_01
And all of a sudden I was like, wait, wait a minute.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_01
What are we doing?
5
SPEAKER_01
No, we can t do this.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re two good friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re two good friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
So if I m like, yeah, whatever.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t want to get into a relationship with you, then I m not going to feel anything.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I m not that kind of a person too.
5
SPEAKER_01
I like a relationship.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so
5
SPEAKER_01
And so I was like, no, no, no, actually, no, sorry.
5
SPEAKER_01
We ll just be best friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
We ll be best friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s what you want.
5
SPEAKER_01
You just want to be
6
SPEAKER_01
best friends with me because I m a great friend and he was like no no no no no that s not what I want and I was like it is it is what you want I m telling you and uh and so then then we tried this friendship thing but he was like do you still want to hang out when we re on the road next week and I was like yeah that d be great
6
SPEAKER_01
And then I was like, yeah, we can stay in the same room.
6
SPEAKER_01
That ll be fine.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, right.
6
SPEAKER_01
And yeah, yeah, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, right.
6
SPEAKER_01
Then we were... Friends turned into lovers quickly.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then like eight months later, we were engaged.
6
SPEAKER_01
Wow, look at that.
6
SPEAKER_01
A year later, Ru was on the way, and now we ve been married for nearly three years, been together over five years, and he is the best.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s just the best.
6
SPEAKER_01
The thing that I love most about him, I don t know if there s one thing, but he s so empathetic.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m Irish and I m fiery and I can be judgy.
6
SPEAKER_01
He assesses everything and he s so forgiving and understands where everyone s coming from and really assesses everything from a 360 point of view almost immediately.
6
SPEAKER_01
And he s so patient and he s the best father and he s so generous and he takes care of everybody.
6
SPEAKER_01
Everybody around takes care of his family, his friends, his society, like his community.
6
SPEAKER_01
Like he gives back.
6
SPEAKER_01
He started wrestling.
6
SPEAKER_01
He was called up on the main roster and almost immediately wanted to open a wrestling school to give back to the wrestling community, to help train people.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s a big coffee connoisseur, wanted to open a coffee shop in his town so that people could enjoy coffee the way that he wants.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s just...
6
SPEAKER_01
He s unbelievable.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s the best person I know.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s the best person I know.
6
SPEAKER_01
And he s funny and he s so smart.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s just great.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then he s like this wrestling savant and so selfless.
6
SPEAKER_01
in so many ways.
6
SPEAKER_01
I could write a book about how great this man is.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s great.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s beautiful.
6
SPEAKER_01
I just say it all the time.
6
SPEAKER_01
I lucked out.
6
SPEAKER_01
Look at me.
6
SPEAKER_01
I did great.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s beautiful.
6
SPEAKER_01
I did great in life.
6
SPEAKER_01
I ve never had a relationship like it.
6
SPEAKER_01
And we have such a happy little family.
6
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it s not perfect.
6
SPEAKER_01
Of course, it s not perfect.
6
SPEAKER_01
Nothing s perfect.
6
SPEAKER_01
We have disagreements from time to time.
6
SPEAKER_01
Mostly me, me disagreeing with something or getting annoyed at something and him patiently trying to rectify the situation.
6
SPEAKER_01
But, you know, we get to do what we love.
6
SPEAKER_01
We get to travel with our daughter.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s just great.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s just great.
6
SPEAKER_01
And it s not always easy, obviously.
6
SPEAKER_01
Traveling 52 weeks a year with a three-year-old isn t always easy.
6
SPEAKER_01
Being all over the place, never really having a settled home life.
6
SPEAKER_01
There s all the things that go into it.
6
SPEAKER_01
But when we just break it down, when we stop worrying about the micro details of
6
SPEAKER_01
oh they should have done this on TV or whatever it is that we might were like oh I feel like you know I thought this was great and people don t seem to like whatever it is that you could possibly get upset about we have to look at it and go
6
SPEAKER_01
How lucky are we that we get to have this family?
6
SPEAKER_01
We get to do what we love.
6
SPEAKER_01
We get to get paid well for it.
6
SPEAKER_01
We get to travel.
6
SPEAKER_01
We have this amazing, magic daughter, and she gets to grow up in a house full of love.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s beautiful.
6
SPEAKER_00
Stop the lights.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s great.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s a good life.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s great.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m so lucky.
6
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_01
I did good.
6
SPEAKER_01
This little average girl did good.
6
SPEAKER_00
Besides your husband, who would you say are the three most influential people in your career over the last... Oh, in my career?
6
SPEAKER_00
Over the last 15 years, who are the three people that influenced you the most and what were the lessons each one of them taught you?
6
SPEAKER_01
Gosh, I suppose Mick Foley would be number one.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s the reason that I got into wrestling.
6
SPEAKER_01
I loved him.
6
SPEAKER_01
And he was different.
6
SPEAKER_01
And he was different than everybody else.
6
SPEAKER_01
But that was what he accentuated.
6
SPEAKER_01
he didn t try to be like everybody, he didn t try to look like... he relied on his uniqueness and his unique ability to cut a promo and tell a story and then of course he wrote a best-selling book and so that you know all these things that I wanted to do and then you meet him in person and then anybody who says don t meet your heroes because you ll only be disappointed
6
SPEAKER_01
Maybe they re not talking about the wrestling industry, because anybody who I grew up idolizing has been nothing but amazing.
6
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_00
He s number one?
6
SPEAKER_01
And Mick Foley was one of them.
6
SPEAKER_01
John Cena, amazing.
6
SPEAKER_00
He seems like a great guy.
6
SPEAKER_01
He is a great guy.
6
SPEAKER_01
He is a great guy.
6
SPEAKER_00
What was the big lesson he taught you?
6
SPEAKER_01
Who are you?
6
SPEAKER_01
Who are you?
6
SPEAKER_01
I don t know who you are.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s what he said to me.
6
SPEAKER_01
I would go to him.
6
SPEAKER_01
I would ask him for advice.
6
SPEAKER_01
He was like, I don t know who you are.
6
SPEAKER_01
I don t know who you are.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I would get so mad.
6
SPEAKER_01
Because the people would be chanting my name.
6
SPEAKER_01
I was like, well, they knew.
6
SPEAKER_01
Because I ve always had this connection with the audience where they would chant for me, even when I didn t have an established character or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_00
Really?
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
There was always a connection there.
6
SPEAKER_01
We were buds.
6
SPEAKER_01
I think because we both love wrestling, you know.
6
SPEAKER_00
I love wrestling, they love wrestling.
6
SPEAKER_01
Let s have a wrestling party, you know.
6
SPEAKER_01
Let s talk about it.
6
SPEAKER_00
But John didn t know who you were?
6
SPEAKER_01
But John cuts through the... He does not tell you what you want to hear.
6
SPEAKER_01
He is honest and I love that about him because you will get an honest response and in a world that
6
SPEAKER_01
is that can often be called fake.
6
SPEAKER_01
Honesty is very important.
6
SPEAKER_00
When he meant who are you, what was he saying?
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Like, who are you?
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When you walk out the curtain, who are you?
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Like, I don t know who you are.
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There s nothing that defines you.
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Who am I?
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I m Superman.
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I m Superman.
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And then I walked out.
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I m the man.
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And then, of course, then I changed.
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Was that after you?
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Well, then I found out who I was, and I became the man.
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Really?
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And then I was distinguishable.
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I am the man, now I know who you are.
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You are the top dog.
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And then I became big time Becks and I was, okay, I know who this person is.
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So how long after John said to you, who are you?
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Oh, a couple of years.
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Oh, it took a while still.
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Took a while.
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So when you became the man, did you go to him and say,
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No, he came to me.
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What did he say?
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He said, you did it.
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He said, I ve said that to a lot of people and not hardly anybody s done it.
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You did it.
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You were the man.
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Wow.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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That was like a wow.
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Thanks John.
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John s, John s, John s, John s the best.
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Wow.
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Okay.
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And the third person?
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The Rock.
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Wow.
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The Rock.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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He, um,
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also incredible, the busiest, biggest star on the planet.
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But if you are stuck for something and you need advice, he will be there in in a heartbeat and be able to help you with that and talk you through anything and listen to your concerns and put them in perspective and
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Yeah, and just be there.
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Just be there for you as a friend and as a mentor.
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when he s also just like the busiest person on the planet.
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And he takes that time out to do that.
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What was the thing he said to you, maybe behind the scenes, backstage, that no one else got to really experience, but he said to you that impacted you?
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One of the things that he said to me that I still think about and think about regularly is, what do you think about in the quiet of the night when everybody s gone to sleep, when there s nobody around,
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What is it that you dream of?
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And keep that at the forefront of your mind.
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And the other thing that he said to me, I think, was when my dad passed away.
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And everybody tries to comfort you.
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And I never know what to say when somebody passes away to somebody else.
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Sorry for your loss.
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You re sending love.
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And he said, and now he s always with you.
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And that, and even saying it now, just makes me feel a certain, because now he is always with me, you know?
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And that ll get me.
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Yeah, so.
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Wow, beautiful.
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Yeah.
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Trust The Rock to always know what to say.
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Rebecca, this has been a beautiful conversation and I could go for another few hours with you but I want to be mindful of time.
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I want people to get your book.
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It s beautiful stories, lessons.
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about someone from, you know, really a small town, small country, who was able to become one of the biggest stars in the world, and all the different life lessons and stories along the way, which are really inspiring.
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So I want people to get a copy of your book, The Man, Not Your Average Average Girl.
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Make sure you guys check this out by Rebecca Quinn.
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Really inspiring stuff, and just some really cool stories in here that I think people will like, whether you re into WWE,
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or not.
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Again, I ve never been to a match, but I thought all this stuff was fascinating, so I m coming.
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One of these days, I m going to be there.
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I have three final questions for you, Rebecca.
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The first one is called the three truths.
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It s a hypothetical question.
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So I d like you to imagine, if you can, a moment that you get to live as long as you want in this world, but it s your last day, many years away.
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You get to pick as old as you wanna be, but eventually you gotta turn the lights off for yourself.
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And in this hypothetical world, you have to take everything with you.
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So no one has access to this book, our conversation, any piece of content that s ever been out, anything you create from this moment moving forward, it has to go with you when you leave.
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But on the last day, you get to leave behind three lessons to the world, three things you know to be true, and that s all you would be able to leave behind to everyone else.
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What would be those three truths for you?
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To believe in yourself.
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My dad said something and it s from the Bible, but he misquoted it.
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And it s a quote that I use in this book too.
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And he misquoted it, but I like his version better.
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And it s, if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will complete you.
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If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will destroy you.
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Wow.
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And I love that.
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I love that.
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It s essentially being authentic to whatever it is inside.
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And the other one, the third one, I will use the most polite language that I can.
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Just be nice to people.
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Be good to one another, you know.
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I think that s what we need in this world more than anything.
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And if you want an outlet for people not being good to each other, watch wrestling.
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Watch wrestling where they re not being nice to each other.
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But it s agreed upon.
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It s contained.
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It s contained.
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It s contained and it s controlled.
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Because I think more than ever.
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especially in a world where negativity is a hot commodity, where the algorithm loves it.
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It is more important where we thought that we left the bullies in the schoolyard, but we don t.
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They re online every day.
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They re constantly telling you.
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They re constantly chirping in their opinions.
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I think we need more than ever just to be good to one another.
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That s beautiful.
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Rebecca, I want to acknowledge you for a moment for
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I really enjoy just getting to know you for the last hour and a half and your authenticity.
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So I want to acknowledge you for you stepping into your authentic, honest, funny, and kind self.
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It s been really cool to get to connect with you for a moment.
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I want to acknowledge you for the journey you ve been on.
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I think it s really inspiring to see someone again from your town and your country do all the different things you did.
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leave a dream, come back and pursue it for years to get to where you are.
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And also I acknowledge you for being the man in your sport and also being a mother,
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a wife and a woman that is living a personal life as well and making both of them work at a high level.
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I guess you said it that there s challenges still and you guys aren t perfect but being able to live your dreams and be a mom and show up for your daughter I think is just a really beautiful thing.
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So I want to acknowledge you for the journey that you re on and your ability to bring
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joy and entertainment and inspiration to so many people every single week.
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So it s really cool.
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Thanks.
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Yeah, of course.
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Thank you for having me.
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Yeah, of course.
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I have one final question, but I want people to get the book.
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Before I ask the final question, where can we support you the most?
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Where can we follow you and how can we be of service to you right now?
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Well, you can follow me on
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I think it s at Becky Lynch WWE or is it WWE Becky Lynch?
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I think it s at Becky Lynch WWE and that s my Instagram, Twitter, I think my TikTok following.
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All your social media channels.
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All my social medias.
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I think it s all the same.
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And then my book available.
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Everywhere.
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Everywhere.
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It s exciting.
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How else can we be of service?
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Watch wrestling.
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Watch wrestling.
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Get the book, share with a friend.
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Final question, Rebecca, what s your definition of greatness?
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Gosh, I think living a life that feels authentic to you.
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I think that s it.
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Whatever it is that you want to do without the noise, without the pressure, whatever it is that you feel,
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is is is authentic.
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I think that s the that s greatness.
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That s greatness.
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Putting out what you want to in the world.
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I hope today s episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today s show with all the important links.
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And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as add free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast.
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If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend, leave us a review over on Apple podcast, and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes.
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I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better.
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And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.
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And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now it s time to go out there and do something great.