With WrestleMania 39 rapidly approaching and a trios match alongside Lita and Trish Stratus against the Damage CTRL trio of Bayley, Dakota Kai, and IYO SKY officially on the books – just one match, not her desired two – Becky Lynch took some time to stop by E! News to talk all about the forthcoming show, her husband's match, and, for better or worse, his opponent at Mania, Logan Paul.
Asked about Lynch's spot in the professional wrestling world, and if the influencer-to-Superstar pipeline is one Paul “Triple H” Levesque and company should milk until it runs dry, “The Man” had a very specific interesting response that probably won't sit too well with the Tik Tok crowd.
“I don't love it. What's he doing, two or three matches a year? I work 52 weeks a year. I take my baby on the road,” Lynch said. “You know how troubling that is? You know the effort that takes? To do that 52 weeks a year because I love this and because we have to make the towns and the fans come to see us every single week, three, four, five times a week? We make the towns and do that. To come in and just get the big matches and big stadiums when you haven't put in the work. I don't love that.”
Now, for those out of the know, this is somewhat of a reversal for Lynch, as she's been pretty complimentary of Paul in the past, telling Rachel DeMita of ESPN that his match at WrestleMania 38 was a “tough act to follow.” Still, much like her husband, Lynch believes that to truly be the best in the professional wrestling world, performers really need to treat the gig like a 52-week commitment, instead of something you roll into a few times a week in order to capitalize on the environment of a white-hot “Premium Live Event” crowd. If Rollins can expose Paul at WrestleMania 39, maybe he can help to prevent the WWE from becoming a part-timer-focused promotion, but based on the “ImPaulsive One's” in-ring efforts, that seems unlikely.
Becky Lynch on E tv dissing Logan Paul LMAO in mania week
But guess who thinks there's no hype for mania, aew cult secretary real one 😂pic.twitter.com/9RPnpv2eDR
— Bernardomayne 🇶🇦 (@bernardomayne) March 27, 2023
Seth Rollins doesn't see the long-term value Logan Paul brings to WWE.
Discussing his own issues with Paul on After The Bell with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick, “The Monday Night Messiah” noted that while he isn't ready to call his Mania foe a full-on tourist, he doesn't think he's good for business either.
“Yes and no,” said Rollins via Fightful. “There are obvious advantages to having people from outside of our world come into our world. Logan Paul is not a new phenomenon. We've been doing this in WWE for decades and we're going to continue to do it for a long time after Logan Paul is gone. There's just a lot to be said about having these types of performers on our show and whatever they may be doing. You look at the Rock N Wrestling Connection, all the way back to Cyndi Lauper, the first WrestleMania with Muhammad Ali and Liberace, you had it all. It makes sense. It's a different beast, I feel, when you start getting these people in the ring on a semi-regular basis. You look at Lawrence Taylor against Bam Bam Bigelow, perfect way to utilize these celebrities. Lawrence Taylor was an athlete beforehand, one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history, and also, a guy who wasn't calling himself a wrestler. He didn't go around getting a big head thinking, ‘I can do this, I'm so good at this, this is a cake walk for me.' I don't want people going around thinking that's what wrestling is, that it's paint by numbers, somebody programs you and you're going to be just fine. Now you're the biggest star, you're the best thing that has ever happened and that's what the business has become. If every single one of us just followed that road map, there wouldn't be a wrestling business because nobody would be able to do the damn thing. That's not what it is. It is making the towns, having hundreds and thousands of matches in different cities in front of different-sized crowds. It's learning your trade. This idea that you can, poof, hop on a camera, film yourself, do some crap on social media to become a star and have some worth in the world, maybe I'm an old crotchety man, but I don't understand what value you're giving back to the world.”
“In the Logan Paul situation, I don't understand what long-term value he's going to be able to give back to us. It's one thing if you come in, do your thing, and leave, but this dude has a contract with WWE. He's supposed to have a few matches a year. That doesn't make you an ambassador for the business, that's not what wrestling is. I don't want my students, I don't want the next generation coming up and thinking that's how you make it in wrestling. If everybody follows that model, the business is dead.”
Would the business actually be “dead” if wrestlers each only performed a few matches per year and attempt to avoid working their way up on the indie circuit by instead focusing their time on making Tik Tok videos and trying to rip off viral tweets? In a way, the answer is yes; while there are performers who make it to WWE, AEW, and other promotions by being college football players, social media stars, or even “nepo babies,” the wrestling business is built on a pipeline of young talents going to school, training for months and then grinding it out on the indies until they get noticed. Paul didn't do that, and unless he starts doing the house show circuit, it's hard to imagine he'll work as many matches over his entire career as someone like Rollins did before he landed in WWE Developmental.
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