Since the rise of The Man Becky Lynch, there have been comparisons between her badass persona and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Those comparisons didn’t exactly go away when she started feuding with the McMahons, wearing a leg brace, and getting suspended for the storyline, even we all got a bit more cynical about how WWE likes to book things (and deservedly so).
In a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s MMA channel, Austin was asked whether he believes that The Man is the female version of Stone Cold, and he had this to say:
Well, I guess she is, if everybody is saying she is. She does remind me a lot of myself. If you line up that women’s roster and you lineup that roster back in the day when I was still in the ring, and you said, “Hey, I need you to pick out my next breakout Superstar.” I don’t think you’re gonna pick out Becky Lynch and I damn sure know you wouldn’t pick me out of that lineup.
If that left any doubt about his feelings about Becky and the Man gimmick, he went on to make clear that he’s a fan of what she’s doing, and called her gimmick “money.”
I’ve loved what she’s done, I love what she’s doing. I like her swagger. And she’s the hottest thing going right now. She’s not a person who’s dwelling on this being the most athletic match in the world, she’s a great worker in the ring, but it’s character driven. ‘”The Man” I love this gimmick, if you’re a young lady, calling yourself “The Man” just like Ric Flair used to be — “To be the man, you gotta beat the man” — but, this is a whole different entity with the way Becky presents it, and obviously, she’s a female, it’s an awesome gimmick and it’s money.
Like our friends at WrestlingInc (who provided the transcripts above), I immediately thought of the video from a couple of years back in which a bunch of WWE superstars reenacted the Austin 3:16 promo from King of the Ring 1996. It seems telling in retrospect that Becky’s the only woman featured in that video, whether that’s because she was the one they asked, or the one who wanted to participate. In the moments we see of Becky (which now seem like not nearly enough), she’s not doing an impression so much as embodying the Stone Cold spirit. You could say that’s part of what she continues to do today.
