Robbie Brookside, currently part of the coaching staff at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, apparently deserves the credit for bringing Becky Lynch to WWE.
She shared the story of what brought her into the company during a recent appearance on Jim Ross' podcast, The Ross Report.
Lynch, who started wrestling when she was 15 years old, ended up stepping away from wrestling when she was 19. She was still inactive and tending bar in New York City when she was approached with an opportunity to be a stuntwoman on the Vikings TV show. Lynch decided to do some wrestling training to prep for the physicality of the stunt job. During this training, Joe Cabray, a promoter in Ireland, asked Lynch if she ever considered a WWE tryout. Cabray then connected Lynch with Brookside, a fixture on the wrestling scene in England before he accepted a position with WWE in 2013.
"In one of the last shows I ever [did[ on the independents [before the hiatus], Robbie had been working on that show and I was wrestling Sweet Saraya, who was Paige's mom. She had a reputation for being … stiff, and I was able to go toe to toe with her. We had a good match and I remember Robbie saying some very kind stuff to me afterwards. When Joe contracted them, he said he had always wondered what happened to me. He saw some potential in me and saw some promise, and then I of course dropped off the planet."
That led to Lynch getting a tryout with WWE, and subsequently signing with the company in the spring of 2013. She noted that, during her hiatus, it was too hard emotionally to be around wrestling or her friends from the business.
"I couldn't face I had given up this thing I had a talent for and asked for," Lynch said, noting that leaving wrestling felt like she had “abandoned my family."
Lynch will challenge Carmella for the Smackdown Women's Title at Summerslam as part of a Triple Threat that includes Charlotte Flair.
