This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. Rebecca Quinn is her real name, but you probably know her better as Becky Lynch as a WWE superstar, and she's written all about her experiences in a new book, The Man Not Your Average Girl. Becky Lynch. Good to have you along today, Hi, how are you? Thanks for having me? Good to have good to have it here, and let's start with how a nice, sweet, little Irish Catholic girl
gets into the WWE. Well, there was nothing nice and sweet about me back then. I'll tell you that. Probably a lot nicer and sweeter right now than most back then. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, still trying to figure it out. But well, you did you have older brothers you would scrap with? I did have an older brother. I did have an older brother. Yeah, he's four years older. He's the one who got me into wrestling. Wrestling was always on in our house.
It reminds me of my wife and her older brother. They were expatriots serving in the Air Force with the parents were serving in the Air Force in the early seventies in Great Britain and that's all that was on for them to watch, so they would watch wrestling and then they would mimic wrestling. So even she was getting into it at a young age. Yeah, that was the same with me and my brother. We used to dress up in my mom's
clothes and wrestle on her bed. And then and then, you know, I fell out of it for a while, and then it got so hot in the Attitude Era, and my brother be watching it, and then I would be making fun of him for watching it, and then I would I would walk past the TV and I saw McK foley and he was so engaging and captivating, and then I was there to stay. And then I fell in love with it, and then I wanted to know everything about it.
And when I found out they were opening a wrestling school in Ireland about an hour away from me, I I went down the first day. I went down the first day it opened, and I didn't think that I could ever be in the w w WI like that seemed way too ambitious, way too unrealistic. But I just went down to give it a try and try to get fit because I was a little wasterter than failed pee and uh and and and for the first time in my life, I had a drive to become
better at something. Well, that was my next question too. In between the time that you were scrapping with your brother on your mom's bed and you decided to get into it more seriously, did had you been very athletic? No, not at all, not at all. Failed pe was a little stone or waster up to no good break in my poor mother's heart. Yeah. Yeah, and and and then wrestling just put me on the straight and arrow. So there was which is a fun thing to say, Well that
there must have been quite a bit to get into it physically. You must have had to really kind of change and and start start a real physical regimen. Yeah, I I did. But like, it's so funny because as bad as I was at PEH, I wasn't scared of the hard work. When it came to wrestling. I felt like I was tough, and like, I don't know if that's because you know, I felt like I had
been through so much in my life. My parents were separated and and and that was was hard on me. But but like I you know, it's that teen angst of feeling like you've been through so much in this life, and nobody understands your heart to break, and now you are broken, and you are tough and you can handle anything. And that's kind of how I
felt a little bit. But but it was a blessing because because it meant that I would put up with anything and and and I wouldn't complain about the soreness or the pain of things, like I was ready for the physical toughness of it. Beggy Lynch and her book The Man Not Your Average Girl. She is the w W E star that you've heard so much about, and she talks all about it in her new book, The Man Not Your Average Girl. So tell me about the first match you were in where you really
we really got some licks. So let me it's not your average average girl, average average girl. I'm sorry, I thought that was a typo. Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's it's it's it's it's it's it's meant to be there because I was so painstakingly
average and have done some not so average things. And tell tell you about a few licks that that when when I first started, there was there was this move that I was doing where it's called a crucifix into a sunset flip, and so you wrap your legs around some and and when you when you you then drop through the person's legs and roll them up. But as I walk through their legs like a little baby coming out kind of on the other side, you know, the person sat on my head and so I remember
being like, oh no, oh, no, this is it. This is when the neck is broken. But thankfully it was just a stinger and moved on past it. But you know, there's always going to be things that go wrong in wrestling, and that's why you train and that's why you practice so you can make sure that those things are few and far between. Were you wrestling with other girls? No, I was the only girl in Ireland. Okay that was not in general, not in general, but just
it was the only girl wrestling in Ireland. And did any of your opponents try anything shall we say spicy on you? No? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, everybody everybody. No. I had just a very positive experience. Everybody was so respectful and you know, the lads would hit on me, but like I was so average that I was loving it. I wasn't used to getting all of this attention. I was like throwing a stake into a pack of lions. I was like, oh, great, great attention, what's this like? Never thought I'd
get it? And but but but but nothing ever, ever bad. And I have my brother there, who you know, was there to protect me and look after me, much to his chagrin. You know, did he support you and your decision to get into this not not initially, not initially, but then when he saw I wasn't dropping out and I wasn't backing down, then he supported me immensely. There's a bit of empowerment in wrestling. It's it's almost a modern day, real life superhero. Yeah. Yeah,
absolutely, it's it's heroes and villains there. The stories were telling, and Becky Lynch tells all about it in her book The Man Not Your average average Girl. Because I got it wrong earlier, you have my permission to body slam me next time I see you. Thank you so much, Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation