WWE: Why Becky Lynch’s Raw title run has been awesome so far

This week, Becky Lynch officially became the longest reigning WWE Raw Women’s Champion ever. Now’s the perfect time to reflect on her reign so far.

Nov. 27, 2019 was Becky Lynch’s 233rd day holding the WWE Raw Women’s Championship. Meaning she officially surpassed Ronda Rousey’s 232-day reign with the title which, until now, was the longest reign in the title’s history. It almost seems perfectly apropos for that milestone to now belong to The Man after defeating The Baddest Woman on the Planet for the belt almost eight months ago.

Now seems as good a time as any to start reflecting on her reign with the title and provide a retrospective on it. And truth be told, when we do reflect on the former Champ Champ’s reign with the Raw Women’s Championship so far, it’s hard to call it anything less than awesome.

I understand not a lot of people would agree with that, mainly considering that her first title defenses were against “weak challengers” like Natalya and Lacey Evans. However, I wouldn’t call either a weak challenger. In fact, I’d say they fit directly into the mission statement that Becky Lynch has expressed for her reign ever since winning the title.

For the majority of her reign, she has spoken of wanting women in the division to step up to her level to create worthy challengers. Evans and Nattie were the first to try to step up to that level. One can argue that they were at the bottom of the totem pole, but I think that’s always been the point. Those who were theoretically beneath Lynch climbed their way to her level and, therefore, The Man attempted to bring the best out of them whilst retaining her title in the process.

Lynch started off her reign in chipping off a hungry, incoming rookie and then two Pay-Per-Views later fought off a veteran who’s not what she used to be, but fought her way back to prominence. What culminated were two PPVs that helped established Lacey Evans as a future mainstay of the main event picture worth keeping an eye on and Natalya as a vet who’s still got it and remains as hungry as ever, thanks to a stellar SummerSlam Submission match.

And then came Sasha Banks.

Banks was the first challenger for Lynch who was truly quote-on-quote “credible” and perhaps was the most worthy adversary to step in front of The Man yet given their history and ability. By far, their feud for the title has been the most compelling and received the most investment from fans so far.

Furthermore, it’s a feud that gave us the heel turns for both Sasha Banks and Bayley. The latter of which helped freshen up both Bayley’s character and SmackDown Women’s Championship reign. Which, in turn, benefited SmackDown as a television show greatly in the past few months. It’s a win-win in that regard.

Perhaps even a win-win-win as this feud also offered us two memorable PPV contests between The Man and The Boss at Clash of Champions and Hell in a Cell. The latter of which is currently primed by many as a bonafide Match of the Year candidate and, arguably, the best match of Lynch’s reign.

From there, Lynch’s mission statement to take on all comers arrived in the former of the top champions from both SmackDown and NXT in, respectively, Bayley and Shayna Baszler. While Lynch did not walk out of their Survivor Series Triple Threat main event as the winner, she was not pinned or submitted either so, technically, she didn’t walk out a loser either.

Nonetheless, the inter-brand feud made for captivating television, especially when we’re talking about this one-on-one segment between her and Baszler. Something tells me this isn’t the last time we’ll see these two staredown.

Most recently, Becky Lynch has been feuding with The Kabuki Warriors. While she was able to defeat Kairi Sane in one-on-one competition, she’s been on the losing end of a bevy of tag team matches against the pair. On one occasion, Asuka pinned Becky Lynch. It’s worth noting that Lynch never got her win back after failing to unseat Asuka for her SmackDown Women’s Championship last January and it seems as though Lynch is developing a losing streak of sorts against The Empress. She’s incapable of beating Asuka whenever they face off.

If I had to take a guess, I’d say that Asuka may be Lynch’s next WWE Raw Women’s Championship challenger. And if I had to guess when that defense may take place, I’d say Royal Rumble 2020, a whole year after Lynch failed to beat Asuka last year.

We’ll have to wait and see if this actually leads to a title match, but if it does, most of us are excited to see where this growing feud goes. Not just because of the history of both competitors, but because it’ll highlight just how great Lynch’s title reign has been over the course of these last few months.

Lynch has steadily climbed the ladder of challengers since winning the big red and white belt. From rookies to vets to old rivals to new enemies. Along the way, her reign hasn’t been perfect (I understand the portrayal of her onscreen relationship with Seth Rollins wasn’t perfect or wanted according to mass audiences) but the most part, it’s provided us with some fantastic matches and angles.

Her reign continues to get better with each passing week and I cannot wait to see where she goes with that title next.