Rebecca Mary Quin (born 30 January 1987) is an Irish–American professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE under the ring name Becky Lynch, where she performs on the Raw brand and is the current Women's World Champion in her fifth reign, and seven-time world champion overall. Lynch is one of WWE's most recognizable and highest-paid wrestlers. Twitter named her sixth on their list of Top Female Athletes Worldwide in 2019.
Rebecca Quin was born in Limerick on 30 January 1987. Shortly after her birth, her family moved back to Dublin. Her parents separated when she was one year old, and her father moved out, but her mother invited him back to co-parent when Rebecca was four. When she was 11, her mother found a new partner, a pilot, and she and Rebecca moved to the coastal suburb of Bayside, to a house beside that of her partner, two years later. Rebecca in her autobiography goes into some detail on completing her growing years there.
Quin began training as a professional wrestler in 2002. Initially working in Ireland, and occasionally teaming with her brother using the ring name Rebecca Knox, she soon began wrestling across Europe and North America on the independent circuit for various promotions. She most notably competed in Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling and became the inaugural SuperGirls Champion in 2005. In 2006, Quin had a severe head injury during a match which kept her away from wrestling for several years. She returned in 2012 and signed a contract with WWE in 2013, assigned to the developmental territory at NXT. Following her push to WWE's main roster, she became the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion at Backlash 2016 and has held the title five times.
As a teenager, Quin heard that Fergal Devitt and Paul Tracey were opening a wrestling school in Ireland. She began training there along with her brother in June 2002. She made her professional wrestling debut five months later on 11 November, using the ring name Rebecca Knox. She teamed with her brother in mixed tag team matches during the early part of her career. She also trained at British professional wrestling promotion NWA UK Hammerlock.
Knox joined the Canadian promotion SuperGirls Wrestling, an all-female offshoot of Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) in May 2005. Following her arrival at an ECCW show in Surrey, British Columbia, Knox feuded with Miss Chevius and defeated her, but lost to her in Port Coquitlam a month later. The following night, Knox teamed with Calum Macbeth to defeat Miss Chevius and Tony Tisoy in a mixed tag team match in Vancouver. On 24 June, Knox defeated Miss Chevius at an ECCW show in Surrey to become the inaugural SuperGirls Champion. Knox successfully defended the championship on several occasions before eventually losing it to Lisa Moretti in April 2006.
In June 2006, Knox defeated Sweet Saraya to win the vacated World Queens of Chaos Championship at an event in Chouilly, France. She held the championship for few months before dropping it to Saraya in September.
In September 2006, while wrestling in Germany, Knox sustained a legit head injury, following which she claimed to have been "suffering from extremely painful headaches, loud buzzing in her left ear and vision as a result," and was also diagnosed with possible damage to her eighth cranial nerve. A 60-minute Iron Woman match against Haze at Shimmer's Volume 7 taping was cancelled as a result.
Following her injury, Quin took a six-year hiatus, wrestling only on three occasions for Irish promotion Fight Factory Pro Wrestling (FFPW) in 2008, 2012 and 2013. She also reappeared in Shimmer in 2011, managing Saraya and Britani Knight for four shows.
During her time away from wrestling, Quin worked as an actress and was cast in several plays in 2011 and 2012. She graduated with a degree in acting from the Dublin Institute of Technology, and has attended Columbia College Chicago and the Gaiety School of Acting. She also worked as a flight attendant with Aer Lingus for two and a half years.
In April 2013, Quin signed a two-year developmental deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and moved to Florida to report to their developmental territory NXT. On 29 August, her new ring name was revealed as Becky Lynch.
Lynch made her televised in-ring debut on 26 June 2014 episode of NXT, defeating Summer Rae. The next week, Lynch teamed up with Bayley in a losing effort to the BFFs: Beautiful Fierce Females (NXT Women's Champion Charlotte and Sasha Banks) in a tag-team match. Lynch spent the next few months competing in non-title matches against Charlotte, losing three in a row. On 23 October episode of NXT, after being told to make herself relevant, Lynch aligned herself with Banks by attacking Bayley, turning heel. Known as Team B.A.E. (Best at Everything), the alliance started to disintegrate when Banks cost Lynch a match against Bayley in February 2015.
Since 2018 Becky Lynch has been cited to be one of the most popular and recognizable wrestlers of her generation. Lynch was the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion in 2016 and at one point, held both the Raw and Smackdown Women's titles at the same time. At WrestleMania 35 in 2019, Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Ronda Rousey became the first women to have headlined WWE's flagship annual event, while Lynch was the first to have won a WrestleMania main event match.
On 30 November episode of Raw, Charlotte started displaying villainous traits after she feigned a leg injury to defeat Lynch, followed by a distraction provided by her father. Throughout December, the two's friendship continued to strain and after Lynch defeated her on 4 January 2016 episode of Raw, Charlotte attacked her and solidified her heel turn. Lynch faced Charlotte for the Divas Championship three days later on SmackDown and at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, but lost both matches after interference from Ric Flair.
Dave Meltzer in February 2016
On 11 September, at Backlash, Lynch won a six-pack elimination challenge, last eliminating Carmella, to become the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion. Her first title defence against Alexa Bliss was scheduled for No Mercy but due to Lynch experiencing a legitimate injury the match was postponed to 8 November episode of SmackDown, where Lynch retained. At Survivor Series later that month, Lynch made up part of Team SmackDown alongside Bliss, Carmella, Naomi and Natalya in a Survivor Series match in a losing effort to Team Raw. At the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view in December, Lynch lost the SmackDown Women's Championship to Bliss in a tables match, ending her reign at 84 days. She received her championship rematch on 17 January 2017 episode of SmackDown, in a steel cage match but lost after interference from another La Luchadora (later revealed as the returning Mickie James). This led to a match between Lynch and James at Elimination Chamber in February, which Lynch won. Lynch participated in a six-pack challenge for the title at WrestleMania 33 in April, which was ultimately won by Naomi.
Quin performed stunts for a 2013 episode of Vikings. She was written off WWE television for a few months in November 2017 to film The Marine 6: Close Quarters.
In 2018, Lynch transitioned to a more aggressive character starting at SummerSlam, when she attacked Charlotte Flair, presenting herself as an unfairly treated underdog and dubbing herself "The Man", resulting in a large increase in her popularity. In 2019, she won a Royal Rumble match, and at WrestleMania 35 won both the Raw Women's Championship and SmackDown Women's Championship, making her the first woman to hold both titles simultaneously and a four-time WWE women's champion. She lost the SmackDown title the following month but then set the record for the longest reign as Raw Women's Champion at 399 days until going on a hiatus due to pregnancy in May 2020. In August 2021, Lynch returned at SummerSlam to confront SmackDown Women's Champion Bianca Belair, whom she would defeat seconds later to become a four-time SmackDown Women's Champion. With her WWE Women's Tag Team Championship win in early 2023, she became WWE's Sixth Women's Triple Crown Champion, and then after winning the NXT Women's Championship in September 2023, she became WWE's Sixth Women's Grand Slam Champion.
In May, Lynch aligned with Naomi and Charlotte Flair against The Welcoming Committee (Natalya, Carmella and Tamina). The two teams faced off in a six-woman tag team match at Backlash; the Welcoming Committee was victorious when Lynch submitted to Natalya's sharpshooter. Shortly after, Lynch competed at Money in the Bank, as part of the first women's money in the bank ladder match, which was won by Carmella. In October, Lynch won a fatal five-way match against Flair, Naomi, Tamina and Carmella to become the Team SmackDown's captain for Survivor Series. At the event, Lynch was the first competitor eliminated and her team was on the losing side. Throughout the rest of the year, Lynch again aligned with Flair and Naomi to feud with the debuting Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan). In January 2018, at the Royal Rumble, Lynch participated in the first women's Royal Rumble match, entering at number 2 and lasting over 30 minutes before being eliminated by Ruby Riott. A few months later, Lynch also participated in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34, but was eliminated from the match by James. In May, she qualified for the women's Money in the Bank ladder match, which was ultimately won by Alexa Bliss.
—CM Punk on Lynch's bloodied face moment in November 2018.
Lynch holds the record for most main event matches at pay-per-view events in a single year for a female wrestler (3 in 2019). That same year, she became the first woman to have been named Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Most Popular Wrestler of the Year. Lynch was also the first and only female performer in WWE history to have lead the company in merchandise sales in 2019. Her Last Woman Standing match against Charlotte Flair at WWE Evolution was ranked No. 1 by WWE on "The Top 25 Matches of 2018" list. This was the first women's match to accomplish this feat.
Lynch is the first WWE wrestler to have appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine in 2019. As of April 2020, she was the sixth highest-paid WWE wrestler and the highest-paid woman according to Forbes, with a salary of US$3.1 million. In 2022, Glazia Magazine named Lynch as one of the Top Female Game-Changers in the 21st Century.
Wrestler Toni Storm cited Lynch as her biggest inspiration and said that she is "taking the women's division to a completely different level." In 2019, wrestling commentator Jim Ross called Lynch "the most over talent in WWE".
Around this time, Lynch started using the nickname "The Man", claiming to be the top wrestler of the company, and was depicted as a face once again. As part of a competition between the Raw and SmackDown brands at Survivor Series, Lynch was scheduled for an interbrand champion vs. champion match against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey. Lynch led an invasion of the Raw roster on 12 November episode of Raw, where she had a legit concussion and broken nose following a punch from Nia Jax; despite the injury, her seemingly unfazed reaction and images of her bloody face turned her into an overnight star – she'd later call the accident "a blessing in disguise". Due to the injury, Lynch was pulled from the match with Rousey and named Flair as her replacement on the following night's episode of SmackDown. After her return, Lynch defended her title at TLC in December against both Flair and Asuka in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match, in which Asuka won the title after Rousey interfered and pushed both Lynch and Flair off a ladder, ending her second reign at 91 days. On 27 January 2019, at the Royal Rumble event, Lynch failed to regain the title from Asuka. Later that night, she participated in the women's Royal Rumble match, replacing an injured Lana, who was the 28th entrant. Lynch would go on to win with lastly eliminating Charlotte Flair. The following night on Raw, Lynch continued her feud with Ronda Rousey, choosing to face Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 35. As part of a storyline in which she refused to seek medical attention on her knee and attacked Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, Vince McMahon suspended Lynch in February for 60 days and replaced her with Charlotte Flair as Rousey's WrestleMania opponent. Due to pleadings from Rousey, Lynch was reinstated by Stephanie, and at the Fastlane event, she defeated Flair via disqualification after Rousey purposely attacked Lynch to give her the win; due to the stipulation of the match, Lynch was added back into the title match at WrestleMania to make it a triple-threat match for the Raw Women's Championship.
Quin began dating fellow professional wrestler Colby Lopez, better known as Seth Rollins, in January 2019. Their relationship was made public in April, after months of speculation. The couple got engaged in August 2019. Their daughter was born in December 2020. Quin and Lopez got married on 29 June 2021. Quin's father, Ken, died in March 2021.
In September 2019, Ric Flair threatened legal action against WWE and filed a trademark for the term "The Man", which was being used as a nickname by Lynch. The threats of legal action caused a rift between Ric Flair and his daughter Charlotte, who was Lynch's onscreen nemesis at the time. Lynch responded to the actions by asserting that she still liked and respected Ric Flair. Ric Flair transferred the rights to "The Man" nickname and gimmick to WWE in May 2020. The terms of the transfer were undisclosed. Ric Flair began feuding with Lynch in 2021, accusing her of using the term without his explicit permission, but their dispute was resolved when he apologized to her in January 2023.
Lynch is a recurring guest on Xavier Woods' YouTube channel UpUpDownDown, where she goes by the nickname 'Soulless Senpai'. In October 2019, Lynch defeated Seth Rollins in a game of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite to win Rollins' UpUpDownDown Championship. Lynch lost the title to Cesaro in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe a month later.
Following Survivor Series, Lynch allied herself with Charlotte in a rivalry with Women's Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane), leading to a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the championship between the two teams being arranged for TLC in December, which The Kabuki Warriors won. She then continued her feud with Asuka, which directed to a match for the Raw Women's Championship at the Royal Rumble on 26 January 2020, where Lynch retained to end the feud.
When Lynch was drafted to SmackDown following the 2016 WWE Draft, she used the nickname "The Irish Lass Kicker". From 2018 to 2020, she used the nickname "The Man". Upon her return and heel turn in 2021, she began to use the nickname "Big Time Becks". After turning face the following year, she reverted back to her "The Man" nickname.
On 21 August 2021, following a 15-month hiatus, Lynch made her return at SummerSlam with a heel character, defeating Bianca Belair in less than half a minute to win the SmackDown Women's Championship for the fourth time. At Extreme Rules, Lynch successfully retained her title following interference by a returning Sasha Banks. A triple threat match between the three women for the SmackDown Women's Championship was then scheduled for the Crown Jewel event in October, where Lynch successfully retained her title. On 15 October episode of SmackDown, as part of her feud with Banks and Belair, Lynch would go one-on-one with Banks and Banks would pin her with a Backstabber after interference from Belair, marking her first loss since her return.
Lynch was a contestant on 15 November 2023 episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!, which drew a season high of 4.2 million viewers. On the episode, Lynch set a Jeopardy record by failing to correctly answer any of the standard sixty clues. Lynch managed to correctly answer two clues in the "Triple Jeopardy" round, which was added to the celebrity edition in 2022, as well as the "Final Jeopardy" clue.
As a part of the 2021 Draft, Lynch was drafted to the Raw brand as a SmackDown Women's Champion. On 22 October episode of SmackDown, Lynch and Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair exchanged their titles, thus Lynch became the new Raw Women's Champion. As part of the 2021 Draft, Bianca Belair was also drafted to Raw and continued her feud with Lynch. On 1 November episode of Raw, Lynch successfully defended her title against Belair, ending the feud. At Survivor Series, Lynch defeated SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a Champion vs. Champion match. Lynch went on to defeat Liv Morgan to retain the title on the 6 December episode of Raw, and in a rematch at Day 1. On 31 January 2022 episode of Raw, Lynch would confront Royal Rumble winner Ronda Rousey but was dropped by Rousey as she left the ring. She would then be confronted by Lita and she would challenge Lynch to a title match at Elimination Chamber for the Raw Women's Championship and she would accept, with this being a dream match for Lynch as well as a first time ever match. She was successful in retaining her title, which would set up a title match with the winner of the Elimination Chamber number one contenders match, Bianca Belair, at WrestleMania 38. At night one of the event, Becky Lynch lost her title to Belair, ending her reign at 162 days.
On 1 November 2022, it was confirmed that Quin would make an appearance on the third season premiere of Young Rock, playing Cyndi Lauper.
On 25 November episode of SmackDown, Lynch made her return as "The Man", being revealed as the fifth and final member of Bianca Belair's team for Survivor Series WarGames. At the event on 26 November, Lynch's team was victorious after Lynch performed a Double Diving Leg Drop from the top of the cage on Kai and Sky through a table and pinned Kai to win the match. At the Royal Rumble on 28 January 2023, Lynch entered the Women's Royal Rumble match at #15. She eliminated Kai and Sky before being eliminated by Bayley.
On the 17 November episode of SmackDown, Lynch was announced as the fourth and final member of Bianca Belair's team at Survivor Series WarGames. At the event on 25 November, Lynch, Belair, Charlotte Flair and Shotzi defeated Damage CTRL (Bayley, Iyo Sky, Kairi Sane and Asuka) after Lynch pinned Bayley. Afterwards, Lynch reignited her feud with Nia Jax, which culminated in a match at Day 1 where Lynch was defeated by Jax. At the Royal Rumble on 27 January 2024, Lynch entered the Royal Rumble match at #21 and eliminated Chelsea Green before being eliminated by the debuting Jade Cargill. On the February 5 episode of Raw, Lynch defeated Shayna Baszler to qualify for the women's Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber: Perth, which Lynch won by last eliminating Liv Morgan, earning a Women's World Championship match against Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania XL. On Night 1 of WrestleMania XL on 6 April, Lynch failed to win the title from Ripley. After Ripley was forced to relinquish the title due to a legitimate arm injury, Lynch won a 14-woman Battle Royal on the April 22 episode of Raw by last eliminating Morgan to win the vacant title, becoming a seven-time women's world champion in the process.
On March 18, 2024, Quin announced she had become a US citizen.
In late 2005, Knox participated in All Pro Wrestling (APW)'s third ChickFight tournament in Hayward, California; she defeated Morgan in the first round, but was eliminated by eventual winner Mariko Yoshida. Knox then won an eighteen-person battle royal at an event in Tokyo, Japan.
Knox began working for the all-female promotion Shimmer Women Athletes in early 2006. In her debut match for the promotion, she defeated Allison Danger, and established herself as a heel (villain) by faking an injury. Following that, she began feuding with Daizee Haze; Knox lost the first match between them, but won the rematch of two-out-of-three falls.