Becky Lynch Dishes on Intergender Wrestling, Avoiding Total Divas and More

There's the Becky Lynch we see tearing at an opponent's arm. There's the person underneath her Irish Lass Kicker persona that she reverts to when the WWE cameras go off.

And often the two selves overlap, on screen and in the ring.

The Superstar side of Lynch is set to captain Team SmackDown Live when the blue brand collides with Raw's five-woman squad at Sunday's Survivor Series pay-per-view. She's not just a leader on TV, though. The former SmackDown women's champion plays a similar part in the locker room.

"I try to lead by example," Lynch told Bleacher Report. "I try to make sure that everybody feels comfortable with everybody else. My biggest thing is having good atmosphere."

In her mind, cooperation among all the grapplers is key. WWE is best off when its talent works together rather than solely focusing on making themselves stars.

"We have to have that selflessness," she said. "It's not just about what's best for us. It's about what's best for the match, which will then be best for the fans, which will then be best for the entire business."

The fact Lynch has adopted this leadership role with the blue brand is a reminder of how far the Dublin, Ireland, native has come. 

Four years ago, she was a new signee with the WWE developmental system. In the early '00s, she was a feisty teenager training with Raw Superstar Finn Balor. Before that, she was a wide-eyed spectator soaking up the magic of WWE from afar.

On Sunday, she'll play a key role at Survivor Series. As a young fan, she didn't get to watch that PPV.

Lynch recalled that she could count all the channels she could see in her household on two hands.

"There were certain pay-per-views that would always be on the cable channels," she said. "Royal Rumble was always one of them. I know Hell in a Cell was another. I don't think Survivor Series was one I could get."

Fast forward to the present, and the 30-year-old is appearing on events like these, engaging fans as one of the company's best babyfaces.

Connections

Lynch felt a bond with the crowd early on. It didn't matter whether they were supposed to be booing her; she hooked them anyway.

"When I was on the independent circuit, I always played the heel role, but I always felt that no matter what, I was able to connect with the fans,' Lynch said. "Whether I was good or not, there was a connection there because I think I just really love wrestling. If you're a fan, you love wrestling. When you can feel that radiating off somebody, I think you tend to gravitate toward them. 

"I think that's the same with a lot of the babyfaces throughout WWE history. Fans pick up on that energy. It's a passion we have for the industry. That resonates with them."

That's been the case during Lynch's WWE run. She makes it easy to pull for her, to feel her pain, to want to see her wrap her hands around the gold.

But fans wanting to discover more about the real Lynch haven't been able to do so via WWE's reality show Total Divas. Natalya, Naomi and others have shown the world their true selves through this medium, but that's not a route Lynch wants to take.

"It's not something I ever wanted for myself," Lynch said. "It's a great opportunity for the women. But I never envisioned myself in that role. And there's a certain mystique about myself that I'd like to keep. I don't want to give out too much of Rebecca Quinn."

Fans do get to experience her sense of humor and her deftness with puns on Twitter, where her wordplay has been one of her signatures. 

The art of the pun has been in her repertoire for a long time. "I think it's something actually to do with a group of friends I used to hang with," she recalled. "We were always making puns. It became a thing I love to do.

"And if you ever don't know what to say, throw a pun in there. It makes it entertaining."

The Revolution Rolls On

When Lynch watched WWE as a youngster, she didn't notice the huge discrepancy between how much spotlight the women garnered compared to the men. It wasn't until she was a part of the industry that she took note of that gap.

"Once you're in it, you start being like, 'That's not the way it should be,'" she said.

And it was clear to her right away she wanted to be a trailblazer.

"I want to change things," she explained. "That was always my goal, my mission, to make sure women were front and center, on all the posters, were booked on main events and have characters that people were just emotionally invested in."

Lynch is well on her way to fulfilling those goals as one of the most prominent wrestlers in the women's revolution. Her battles with Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss have created memorable moments in a surging women's division. 

And when the next wave of women move up from NXT, she will be excited to face them.

When asked about which NXT Superstars she would most like to tangle with, she named a trio of rising prospects: "Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay—those three would be my top."

The Irish Lass Kicker doesn't want to be limited to fighting women, though.

She is fresh off winning the first WWE intergender match in years. Lynch's victory over James Ellsworth pitted a wronged babyface against a slimy heel and featured a rare clash between male and female talent.

Some may have analyzed it for what message it was sending, but for Lynch, it was all about wowing fans.

"With that match, my whole hope was that people didn't get up in arms about a guy touching a woman," Lynch said. "And that it just became about the storyline as opposed to 'Oh no! What's going on in the world?' It was more about entertainment than making any political or social statement."

And she wants to go down that intergender road again. "That's something people want to see," Lynch said.

Next on Her Plate

Before she faces any more men, Lynch will fight side by side with her SmackDown sisterhood against five stars from Raw.

She will get to go up against the dominant and mesmerizing Asuka. She will be teaming with rival Carmella. But she's most thrilled about a reunion of sorts.

"I'm looking forward to getting in the ring once again with Bayley and Sasha," Lynch noted. "It's been a while since we've stepped in there together. And they are the other half of the Four Horsewomen that myself and Charlotte never get to see.

"I feel like all four of us have always brought the best out of each other. To be in the ring with them, I feel like that's where magic happens."

When that brand battle is over, it will be time to settle back into normalcy, to focus on being among SmackDown's top acts, to go chasing after the women's championship her friend Charlotte Flair holds in her grasp.

It's not clear who will be in the mix for that title. The blue brand has made a habit of late out of throwing booking curveballs.

Sometimes the least expected name rises to the top on SmackDown. 

"We say it's the land of opportunity, and it's obviously become a cliche at this point, but I think it's true," Lynch said.

That's part of the excitement of the show. It could be Lynch who returns to title contention or it could be the less heralded Tamina Snuka. Whoever can get hot will earn that next crack at the crown.

"You never know who is going to win," Lynch explained. "Everybody has an equal chance of either becoming champion or rising to victory. That's the greatest part of SmackDown Live."

Becky Lynch is a SmackDown star and former women's champion. Ryan Dilbert covers WWE and pro wrestling for Bleacher Report. All quotes obtained firsthand.