Becky Lynch Set To Rekindle Her Rich History With WWE SummerSlam

While speaking with The Takedown on SI, the reigning Women's Intercontinental Champion humbly agreed with our own assessment that as the years have progressed, she has only continued to up her game.

“I never want to rest on my laurels. I always want to be improving. I always wanna be getting better. I always want to find ways to tell the best story,” Lynch said. “I'm always thinking about how I can do better for myself, for the audience, for storytelling purposes, for the people that I'm in there working with and working for.”

The Man will walk back into MetLife Stadium on Sunday August 3 for the first time since her historic victory in the main event of WrestleMania 35. Her no disqualification match against Lyra Valkyria will also be her first at SummerSlam in three years.

Her lengthy absence from the 'Biggest Party of the Summer' was something Becky didn't initially believe was factual when it was mentioned during our conversation, especially considering how monumental this event has been throughout her career.

“It was my first PLE. It was where the infamous slap happened that really catapulted my career. It was also where I came back after I had my daughter and beat Bianca Belair in 26 seconds. And then a year later we were tearing the house down and then fighting side-by-side… I’m kind of blown away that it’s been three years since I wrestled at a SummerSlam.”

The Man was not under WWE contract while last year's SummerSlam was going on in Cleveland and the previous year in Detroit, Becky's blow off match with WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus was controversially held off until September's Payback Premium Live Event in Pittsburgh.

The pair made some rather delicious lemonade out of the very sour lemons they were handed when they delivered arguably one of the top steel cage matches in WWE history, but many fans felt they deserved as big of a stage that Lynch and Bianca Belair had the year before.

Their Raw Women's Championship Match inside of Nashville's Nissan Stadium was ranked by WWE as the 21st greatest to ever have taken place at SummerSlam. It was also the very first official contest of the Paul 'Triple H' Levesque era as Chief Content Officer and the culmination of a story that began amid a cloud of controversy.

It was SummerSlam 2021 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas when Becky Lynch made her triumphant return from maternity leave by defeating the E-S-T in mere seconds to capture the SmackDown Women's Championship.

The finish sucked the air out of the initially raucous home of the Raiders and sent fans flocking to social media to report what they believed to be a complete and total 'burial' of a budding main event star.

As she outlined in her memoir, Lynch made a promise to Bianca to do everything within her power to make sure that she bounced back and came out of their impending rivalry looking stronger than ever before.

Big Time Becks would deliver, dropping the title back to Belair on the 'Grandest Stage of Them All'. An instant classic of a match at WrestleMania 38. The pop from the Dallas crowd when Belair won, was equal to that of SummerSlam 2018 when a fed up Becky Lynch slapped the head of Charlotte Flair's shoulders. Except this time, Lynch was on the opposite end of the celebration.

“I remember the eruption when Bianca won and she won in such a cool way. Not the slickest victory of all -time, but maybe like one of the slickest victories, you know, she back flipped out of the Rock Bottom [Manhandle Slam] into the K-O-D. That was pretty special too.”

Months later, they would run it back at SummerSlam in bout equal in caliber, and once again, the E-S-T would reign supreme.

“It was the exact outcome you wanted. You wanted to root for Bianca, you wanted to hate me, you wanted to feel like she was robbed and had something to come back from. And she did. And we had a wonderful story for a full year. I think if you're still looking back at (SummerSlam 2021) as unfavorable, you kind of missed the story of it, you know?”

The most impressive aspect of her performance that night in Nashville was that Becky Lynch suffered a severe shoulder separation in the opening moments and battled through the pain to complete the full 20-minute contest and a post-match angle with the debuting Damage CTRL.

“If I hurt something, normally I don't know that I've hurt something because the adrenaline carries me. I didn’t know that I was hurt. I was like, oh, this is painful. It's weird that this is so painful. I hope I can take this next move okay.”

It wasn't until Lynch got backstage and the rush of performing in front of 50,000 fans wore off that she felt the full brunt of the damage she sustained.

She'd soon learn that the follow-up to her long-awaited babyface turn would have to wait a few months, but her time on the shelf - that included multiple uncomfortable and sleepless nights - was all part of a job well done.

“You've got somebody else's body in your hands, and so you want to make sure that you protect them as best as you can with the limited strength that you have. These were the little things going through my head, but at no point do I ever think like, oh, I'm going to stop. As long as I can go, I'll keep going.”

As Becky Lynch prepares to make her return to SummerSlam this weekend, she may also be preparing for history to repeat itself. The Man has spent much of her latest comeback running a similar playbook to her rivalry with Bianca Belair, only this time it's with her former protégé Lyra Valkyria.

Much like in 2021, Lynch made a surprise appearance in Las Vegas, turned heel, stole a championship and is now deploying every trick and tool in her arsenal to retain it. Including the aforementioned slick pinning combination on Bayley at WWE Evolution earlier this month.

“The slickest of all time! My husband talked to me after that and he goes, ‘I didn't know you could be so smooth.’ I said, ‘I picked you up, didn't I?’” Lynch proclaimed proudly. “That might become my new finisher. The Lynch Pin.”

The Lynch Pin may need to be called upon again this Sunday inside of MetLife Stadium. Much to her credit, Lyra Valkyria has been thrust into the biggest spotlight of her career these past few months, working against both Becky and Bayley, and she has absolutely answered the bell every step of the way.

A victory on Sunday for Valkyria would mean redemption. She would be the latest talent that Lynch has put over during her Hall of Fame career and another successfully elevated Superstar.

“As you get more experience, you're constantly learning what works, what doesn't work, and hopefully improving upon that," Lynch told The Takedown on SI. "Hopefully I will continue to do that until I stop doing that. And then maybe my body will tell me that it's time to walk away.”

Then again, maybe things will be different this time around. Perhaps The Man really did come back around to hold everyone else down. After all, not every story gets a happy ending. Win or lose on Sunday, Becky Lynch has finally come back around to SummerSlam and the event is better for it.