By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Becky Lynch
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On what was difficult to write about in her book: “Anything with WWE I thought needed to be handled with great care. Because I don’t think you can absent-mindedly write about people that are in the public eye. You have to have a good representation of them and an accurate representation of them. And so I wanted to detail everything very honestly, very factually, without letting my bias come into play. Like when was I the asshole? I need to own that. Let me try and see the other person’s point of view because these people are in the public eye and you want to represent them in the way that is most honest. And here’s another thing that Mick Foley told me, never use a book to get back at anybody. Like, never use it as a revenge tool, they don’t have the chance to defend themselves. And I took that as I’m going to be the hero of my own story, right? If you’re reading this, I’m likely painting myself as the hero of my story. It’s not fair for me to paint anybody as a villain, especially somebody who doesn’t have the chance to respond. So I really wanted to handle all of that stuff with care.”
On WrestleMania 35: “I was in the moment, I couldn’t see it [Ronda’s shoulder being up]. But the discourse afterwards, and also the sound of the audience made it seem like something had gone wrong. But obviously, at the time, I wasn’t aware. And yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if that was intentional, or accidental. I could see the motivation for it being intentional, like, oh well, this will be my out to get a second match in the long game, or could have just been accidental. [The match should have ended] with a pinfall, but not with the shoulder up.”
On Ronda Rousey submitting being the original finish: “Well, so that the creative that was laid out. So she had her driver take her to the wrong spot. And so she showed up, I think, like an hour [late], and we’d been talking through stuff. And TJ, our producer, an amazing producer, TJ Wilson. I’ve known him since 2006. And we were road-tripping across Canada and into Washington and Portland. It’s a wild journey. Anyway, he’s like, maybe you have Ronda in an armbar, she looks like she’s about to tap out. And so Ronda comes and we tell her the creative and say and then you’re almost about to tap out. [Ronda says] ‘Oh no, my mom wouldn’t look me in the eye or talk to me again if I looked like I was about to tap out.’ All right, well, she’s probably not going to tap out on the finish. So you know, she never tapped out in her career. So I understood it, respected it, and moved on quickly. I was gonna win two titles in the main event of WrestleMania. It was not a big deal whether she tapped out or not. It was I was winning and she was doing the honors.”
On WWE being hot right now: “I think it is the leadership that we have right now and that things are thought out. Because it was no secret that before the show would be rewritten as it was going on. I talked about it in the book. It wasn’t unheard of for them to have a show on paper and we’d show up and Vince would tear it up and we’d start from scratch and then at 6 pm your creative changes. And then you’re like, oh, okay, well, what are we doing? And it didn’t always play off of what we had done last week. Now with Hunter in charge, he has a vision. He sees it through and that’s what you need for a TV show. You don’t start filming Succession episode one without knowing where you’re going in episode five. So I think that’s been a huge change. And then the reins are off a little bit in terms of letting people have a bit more freedom to try things out. See if things work, see if they don’t and have a conversation there. I think that just makes a world of a difference.”
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