Was Weird Becky Lynch / Ronda Rousey WrestleMania 35 Ending Planned or Botched?
Becky Lynch won a triple-threat match with Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair to become WWE’s unified women’s champion at WrestleMania 35 on Sunday night. It wouldn’t be WWE if we weren’t left at the end of an 8-hour show scratching our heads and wondering what was scripted and what was attributable to human error.
Becky Lynch PINS Ronda Rousey to become the Raw AND SmackDown Women's Champion! #WrestleMania
— GiveMeSport - Wrestling & WWE (@GMS_WWE) April 8, 2019
Not the ending anyone expected and Ronda's shoulders weren't on the mat for the whole three count, but who cares, right?
Why couldn't we see Ronda get tapped out though? ? pic.twitter.com/gFU3T9IAdL
It was presumable since Becky got white hot at and after SummerSlam that WrestleMania was going to end with her hoisting the championship, but the ending came from out of nowhere. She bridged Rousey over after getting slammed, and the ref counted 1-2-3. But, as the announcers were quick to point out, Rousey’s shoulders were not actually down. Controversy!
The reports quickly came out that this wasn’t how everything was drawn up:
The finish didn't happen as planned. Rousey wasn't happy after, either. Thought the situation made her look bad, apparently.
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 8, 2019
More from @colohue:
— Kristen Ashly (@KristenAshly) April 8, 2019
Match ended too abruptly, Becky was still meant to win.
"Accident's happen. The ref's continued a count after a kick out. He hasn't delayed between the 2 and 3 like they're supposed to and Becky hasn't let go in time for Ronda to kick out."#WrestleMania
This is the second straight WrestleMania ending that has everyone puzzled. Last year, Brock Lesnar went out to the ring in New Orleans apparently thinking he was going to lose to Roman Reigns, only for Vince McMahon to allegedly change his mind mid-match. This left Lesnar apoplectic, throwing the belt at his boss in a heated moment backstage, but it all got resolved enough for him to stick around as champion for another full year.
To me, the announcers were so quick to notice that Rousey hadn’t actually been pinned that it really seems like it was an element of the storyline. Maybe this was a plan known to an inner circle, but not all the performers? Or maybe it was botched and they just rolled with it really quickly? The beauty of the genre is we’ll never know.