Becky Lynch on her new book, raising a family on the road, and women in WWE: ‘There’s nothing else like it’

Becky Lynch is “The Man,” and one of the most iconic women to ever set foot in the WWE ring.

Lynch, whose real name is Rebecca Quin, is releasing her memoir, The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, about her life and career in wrestling. Ahead of another bout at WrestleMania 40 this weekend, she’ll be at the Barnes & Noble in Center City, signing copies of her book on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Lynch, 37, wrote the book herself, without using a ghostwriter, a rarity for celebrity memoirs.

“It was always in the front of my mind, top of my goal list to write my biography,” Lynch told The Inquirer. “I wanted to write it myself. I didn’t want a ghost writer or anything like that. That was one of my main goals, and so when I was offered a deal, it just made sense, and then I got to work and here it is, and I’m so proud of it.”

Lynch’s WWE success came as a surprise to many — including her. She took a six-year break from wrestling following an injury, became a flight attendant and planned to pursue stunt work before she got a WWE tryout in 2013.

In the years since, Lynch has done it all. She’s won Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships, and broken records as one of the most popular wrestlers in the promotion. She even met her husband, Colby Lopez, known in wrestling as Seth Rollins, through WWE.

“I’ve done it all, and I mean that in the best way and I also don’t mean that in a conceited way,” Lynch said. “I’m very lucky, because the title of my book is The Man. The subtitle is ‘Not your average average girl.’ Nobody ever expected me to have the career that I have and that I continue to have. The thing that I love about wrestling more than anything else is storytelling and crafting out matches and promos in a way that gets the greatest response from the audience.

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“I think once you’ve achieved all of those bucket-list things that you wanted to tick off, then you go back to wrestling in its most simple and purest form. Why do we do this? We’re on the road 52 weeks a year. We are in the ring three, four nights a week, doing crazy stuff, putting our bodies through the wringer time and time again, but we do it because we love it, and there’s nothing else like it. There’s no other fan base like the fan base that we have. You’re able to go back to it in its most pure form, and I think that’s really a wonderful place to be.”

Lynch and Rollins have a 3-year-old daughter. With both of them on the road with WWE, she’s had an unconventional early childhood and experienced a lot out on the road. Rollins and Lynch are both competing at WrestleMania 40, with Rollins as part of the main event between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, and their daughter is coming along for the ride.

“We’re so lucky in that we’ve got a great system, and we are lucky enough that we have a tour bus and our driver and his wife look after my daughter when we’re working,” Lynch said. “Like WrestleMania, she’ll be out with them and go with them places and she’s so familiar with them. They’re like another set of aunt and uncle, so it works out really well. We have the greatest situation.”

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Lynch was one of the first WWE athletes to take time off for maternity leave and to come back just as strong, winning multiple titles in her return. That’s a huge marker of progress for women in the industry. When Lynch first signed with WWE in 2013, women wrestlers still competed under the Divas branding.

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Since then, they’ve put the women under the same Superstars branding as the men, and Lynch was part of the first-ever women’s headline match at WrestleMania 35, beating Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a winner-takes-all Triple Threat match.

“It’s what I’ve been fighting for since the start is equality, and we’re getting there,” Lynch said. “There’s little things that need to change, but for the most part we’re all on the same level. I love that because when I came in, I was told girls can’t punch, girls can’t do this, and now that’s not the case. ‘Women can’t be the main event of WrestleMania,’ well, I won the main event of WrestleMania, so that’s not a thing. I’ve gotten to main event, countless Raws and SmackDowns and pay-per-views and live events and continue to do so, so there’s no ceiling on what the women can do anymore.”