Elimination Chamber: The Suspension is Killing Me

LaToya Ferguson
Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch (source: WWE)

At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, before Ronda Rousey defended her RAW Women’s Championship against Ruby Riott, WWE showed footage from a live event the took place during the weekend. Why? Because “The Man” Becky Lynch—who’s still serving her 60-day suspension—showed up during a match between Charlotte Flair and Asuka to attack the former:

The footage also revealed that Becky’s leg injury is now even worse, thanks to Charlotte targeting the leg after the fact, as they were both on their way out of the arena. So before tonight’s championship match could even get underway, Charlotte Flair came out to be interviewed by Charly Caruso. Well, it started as an interview, but it ultimately became a reason for Charlotte to talk about how great she is—”Life is good when you’re Charlotte Flair!”—and how the same couldn’t be said about Becky.

Charlotte said that during that live event, she did what she does best: “And that’s humiliate and decimate ‘The Man’.” She then gloated about how “Becky Lynch got herself suspended from the WWE,” before insulting her for pandering for the WWE Universe. Because as Charlotte made clear, the only person she’s ever pandered for is herself in the mirror. This went on for a while before Charlotte informed the WWE Universe that she’d be watching this RAW Women’s Championship match at ringside.


Ronda Rousey (c) def.  Ruby Riott, for the RAW Women’s Championship (RAW)

After Charlotte’s promo about self-love, the current challenger Ruby Riott entered, immediately ready to go after weeks of feeling ignored leading up to this match. And then the champ, Ronda Rousey, came out—100% in fight mode—rocking the Sonya Blade gear and ready to get rowdy.

Once the bell rang, Ruby immediately came for Ronda, trying not to give the champ any space. But she did, and as soon as Ronda started with the offense, Ruby decided to regroup on the outside. In fact, after that, Ruby’s entire strategy became avoiding Ronda at all costs. But that strategy didn’t last too long.

No, not at all: Once Ronda got her hands on Ruby, she locked in the armbar, and that was it. It was all over. Ruby Riott went from feeling overlooked heading into this title match to losing to Ronda Rousey in just a couple of minutes, just like her teammates did a couple of weeks ago.


After the match, Charlotte got into the ring to face-off with Ronda, as now it was officially official that they would be WrestleMania opponents. But then a third party decided to get involved, as “The Man” showed up in the crowd, slowly coming toward the ring with cruthces. (The announce team wondered if she had a ticket, but considering the fact she went straight for the ring with no attempted prevention by security, that wouldn’t have mattered anyway.)

Charlotte was clearly amused by the sight of Becky hobbling her way into the ring, while the WWE Universe was excited (chanting “SHE’S THE MAN”). But Becky Lynch? She was smart: She tossed one crutch at Charlotte and used the other to beat the woo out of her. All while Ronda watched on, looking impressed or at least somewhat amused. (She definitely wasn’t going to ask Becky to stop.)

But when Becky was done, Ronda grabbed the other crutch and inched toward Charlotte with it. Charlotte pleaded for Ronda not to do it, but the WWE Universe certainly pleaded with Ronda to do it. And while Becky looked to support this course of action, she also used it as a way to cheapshot Ronda from behind and beat her with the crutch too. Finally, WWE officials came out to stop the madness, but Becky wouldn’t be stopped. At least, not until she was finished.

When all was said and done (and beaten), Becky Lynch was clearly pleased with herself. Even as she was escorted out of the arena in handcuffed. Ronda Rousey, on the other hand, couldn’t say the same, as she ended up bleeding from the head as a result of the attack:

Becky Lynch should be happy she’s actually still suspended right now, because that means she can avoid “The Baddest Woman On the Planet” after this attack. It would probably be for the best.


You can watch this year’s Elimination Chamber on the WWE Network.

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