Rumor has it that WWE have already chosen Becky Lynch’s WrestleMania 36 opponent. Let’s speculate who that opponent might be.
Ever since WrestleMania 35 went off the air, Becky Lynch has lived up to her nickname of being The Man. Not to say she didn’t already do so on the road leading to MANia, but after winning both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships in the same night, Becky is quite literally The Man. In the classic sense, of course, as the top Man of the company.
She is the Man to beat and as Ric Flair always said, to be The Man – Woooooooooooo – you gotta beat The Man. Surely, there will be some woman hoping to dethrone Lynch of her Man crown come next year’s WrestleMania, but it may not be who you think it could be.
In a word from The Wrestling Observer, it appears as though WWE will continue to keep positioning Becky as their top star all the way leading into WrestleMania 36. They even have gone as far as to already have an opponent in mind for Lynch, but reportedly, it won’t be Charlotte Flair or Ronda Rousey; two no-brainer opponents for Lynch.
If this is true, then that presents an interesting door opened for several women on the active roster; whether that roster be main or one of WWE’s other brands. Even with a whole calendar year to go until the next Show of Shows, Becky Lynch’s opponent sets the stage for an interesting match worth predicting.
5. Toni Storm
Toni Storm is the only woman on this list who has never stepped inside of the same ring as Becky Lynch. However, both women have kept close eyes on each other’s work. In the past, Storm has admitted to being directly inspired by The Man and hoping to one day step in the ring with her. Meanwhile, as seen in the above video, Lynch delivered high praise to the current NXT UK Women’s Champion for having “a wealth of potential.”
Both women have had a hot streak of a year that kicked off around the latter half of 2018. At that time, Lynch transitioned into becoming The Man while Toni Storm won the Mae Young Classic 2 tournament, becoming the breakout star of the NXT UK women’s division in the process. Then, let’s not forget Storm won the NXT UK Women’s Championship last January at the first ever NXT UK TakeOver event. She’s managed to hold onto that title for almost 115 days and counting now.
Both women continue to have white hot runs on their respective brands. They very well could be heading towards a collison course right into each other sometime down the road. Clearly, both women would love to face each other so why not let it happen on the Grandest Stage of Them All?
4. Bayley
Believe it or not, Bayley and Becky Lynch have not squared off against each other often. We have seen several match combinations pitting Bayley against Sasha Banks, Sasha against Lynch, Lynch against Charlotte Flair, Charlotte against Bayley and Sasha against Charlotte. Yet, Bayley vs. Becky Lynch may be the most underutilized pairing to come out of the Four Horsewomen.
The Hugger and The Man only squared off a small handful of times in NXT. In fact, when the two faced off last week on SmackDown, it was the first time the two Superstars stared each other down since NXT. That makes a match-up between the two still feel fresh and fresh match-ups are exactly what WrestleMania was built for.
With Money in the Bank coming around the corner and The Huggable One being apart of the match, there are several ways WWE could get this feud primed and ready for Mania. For example, Bayley could win the case and hold onto it until cashing in for a fair one-on-one match against a champion in Becky Lynch. Semantics aside, regardless of how we get their story wise, this may be a Mania match that WWE would be smart to invest in.
3. Sasha Banks
This could be a tricky one to predict considering that Sasha Banks’ status with the company remains up in the air as of this writing. However, if WWE do find a way to convince The Boss to return to WWE television while simultaneously keeping her around all the way to next year’s WrestleMania, many of us would love a Mania match between Becky and Sasha.
This may be easy to forget, but Banks and Lynch had an absolute in-ring clinic against each other four years ago at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable. On a card that included Samoa Joe’s WWE debut, as well as Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn for the first time in a WWE ring, it was the NXT Women’s Championship match that stole the show.
Banks and Lynch have yet to produce such magic together for the main roster, but the best time to do so would be on a stage like WrestleMania. It seems as though Becky Lynch has already teased a match against Sasha in an attempt to give the Legit Boss a ready made feud for when/if she returns. If that return ever comes, this has to be the go-to match WWE steer towards and they should save it for Mania.
2. Shayna Baszler
WWE have been teasing a confrontation pitting the UFC Four Horsewomen against the WWE Four Horsewomen ever since the two groups stared each other down during the first Mae Young Classic tournament. Before we see both stables finally square off in the ring, it may be time for Becky Lynch to take on Ronda Rousey’s best friend, Shayna Baszler.
The story here writes itself. We have not seen Ronda Rousey since Becky pinned her at WrestleMania 35. The former Raw Women’s Champion’s future with the company appears to be up in the air as a result (in kayfabe at least). Following her second reign with the NXT Women’s Championship, Shayna could get called up to the main roster – ideally with her two fellow Horsewomen, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir – hoping to exact revenge on Becky for running Ronda out of WWE.
That revenge would especially be sweet if it happened a year after Mania 35 at Mania 36.
Even better, if WWE so wanted, they could also transition this feud into getting the WWE vs. UFC Horsewomen storyline they’ve been dying to set up. All Becky has to do is get some backup from her own fellow members of the Horsewomen.
1. Stephanie McMahon
There are not many names we can think of that could be bigger than Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey and would, as a result, give Becky an even bigger match at WrestleMania 36. Well, there is exactly one name that might be bigger than Ronda and Charlotte in the grand scheme of the WWE. That would have to be the heiress to the WWE throne herself, Stephanie McMahon.
Becky Lynch has stared down with Stephanie McMahon in the ring on a number of occasions and in one instance, dropped her boss where she stood. There were little to no consequences for The Man following that attack, but what if there was in the future? What if Becky refused to bow to the Queendom one too many times and Stephanie decides to lace up her boots for the first time since WrestleMania 34 as a result?
It’s a possibility that wouldn’t be hard to imagine. Before our readers cringe at the thought of a non-wrestler getting a high profile match at WrestleMania, let’s remember how entertaining Steph was in her match against Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle in that aforementioned WM 34 match. She makes for quite the entertaining weaselly heel in that ring and we’re positive that Becky could get a great match out of her.