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WWE handled Becky Lynch’s heel turn all wrong so far

By Christopher Jeter

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If WWE is committed to making Becky Lynch a heel for her feud with Charlotte Flair, then they need to do a little more to get her some heat.

On SmackDown last night, Becky Lynch cut her first promo since turning on her best friend Charlotte Flair. While Lynch came through with her usual top-notch delivery, her verbal diatribe ultimately fell short of its intended goal: get heat on the “Irish Lass Kicker”.

Getting the fans to turn against the universally beloved Lynch was always going to be a tough task. But as usual, WWE made things harder for themselves by giving Lynch what amounted to a babyface promo with some soft heel insults sprinkled in between. If WWE truly wants Lynch to get over as an antagonist, they will need to do more than that.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that WWE turned a popular act heel against the fans’ wishes. Most notably, the company turned “Stone Cold” Steve Austin heel (supposedly at his behest) at WrestleMania X-7 in 2001. As much as he and the company tried to establish him as an unlikable villain, the fans never took to Austin in his more unscrupulous role.

Similar to Lynch, people didn’t want to boo Austin. At least in Stone Cold’s case, WWE tried to get the fans to turn on him. Even though it’s only been a week, the creative team hasn’t made the same overtures for Lynch.

The very first thing that Lynch said when she addressed the audience last night was that she deserved to be the SmackDown Women’s Champion. This claim was met with uproarious cheers and applause from the Brooklyn crowd. It’s hard not to blame them. Since her call-up in 2015, Lynch has effectively played the role of the lovable, altruistic babyface that fought with heart and honor and remained undeterred in her quest to become champion despite many missteps. Who wouldn’t empathize with a character like that? Apparently Vince McMahon and the members of the WWE creative team, that’s who.

As Lynch continued, the cheers and the “Becky” chants got louder and louder as she talked about how Flair stole her moment (partially true), how Flair deserved the beating she got (eh!), how she fought for months to earn a singles title shot (also true), how she wanted to prove that she was more than Flair’s bestie (honorable), and how she’s the best wrestler in the women’s division (debatable, but not invalid). These comments won’t generate heel heat for Lynch. The only thing fans will do in response to those words is nod their heads as if they were listening to the much less memorable Will Smith Men in Black song.

The heel lines that Lynch did utter were effective, particularly when she said that her fans often wavered in their support for her. That was a solid example of a heel using warped logic to explain his or her point of view. However, the heat for those sporadic biting comments was as fleeting as the supposedly shaky support from Lynch’s fanbase. Combine the babyface overtones with the muted heel lines, and the result is a very strong, edgy Lynch promo that further entrenches her fans in her camp.

Honestly, if WWE were truly determined to turn Lynch, then they booked the Lynch/Flair/Carmella triple threat title match at SummerSlam all wrong. The finish only served to further justify Lynch’s actions, as she had then-champion Carmella locked in the Dis-arm-her before Flair slipped in and hit Natural Selection for the pinfall. Sure, Flair did nothing legally wrong, but the ending sequence underscored Lynch’s point: she put in all the hard work only to have Flair slip in and take it from her.

Instead, WWE should have booked Flair to beat Carmella to win the title. That way, Flair gets her revenge on Carmella for the cash-in last April and she comes across as valiant for pinning the champion to win the title (even though Carmella was as weak of a champion as it got).

Then, after disposing of Carmella again in a rematch, Flair and Lynch could wrestle one another in a face vs. face title match, with Lynch issuing the challenge to prove she can beat her friend when it counts. Flair, wanting to prove herself as a fighting champion while giving her friend a fair shot at the title, would accept, setting the stage for a clash on SmackDown or at Hell in a Cell or Evolution.

The two could’ve then put on a competitive, memorable title match, with Flair retaining the title with a roll-up or something — not a definitive pinfall. Once the two shake hands in a show of good sportsmanship, then Lynch could turn on Flair and beat her down. And not like that beatdown from last Sunday. I mean a beatdown that approaches Randy Orton/Jeff Hardy levels of uncomfortable.

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Lynch probably would’ve still gotten cheered, but at least this scenario she has less of a leg to stand on in terms of justification for her actions. The current situation has made a nearly impossible take even harder to pull off.

It’s ridiculous to deride a feud after only one week, but WWE dug a hole for themselves the second they decided to turn their most affable female wrestler into a bitter heel. There’s no question that between Lynch and Flair, Lynch is the more admired while Flair is the more natural heel.

That’s not to say that this can’t work; for all its flaws, Lynch’s promo was fantastic and Flair held up her end with her post-SummerSlam promo, where the new champ was crestfallen as a result of her friend’s betrayal. Even if the heel/face alignment isn’t what the fans envisioned, there’s a good chance that both women could make this work.

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The question is, will the fans play along? Judging by the first week, the answer seems to be no. WWE certainly didn’t help their cause with the early layout of the program and Lynch’s initial promo. That said, there’s still time to fix this, but they will have to put the work in to get Flair cheered and Lynch booed. Otherwise, the company’s questionable decision to turn one of their strongest babyfaces will have been for nothing.