Classic Match: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair, Royal Rumble 2016
RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.
“Good Friends, Better Enemies.” That was the subtitle of a 1996 WWF pay-per-view headlined by a match between former partners Shawn Michaels and Diesel, but Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch have redefined that phase in pro wrestling’s modern era. While their friendship/rivalry/bitter blood feud continues to this day, a crucial step on that journey happened three years ago, at the Royal Rumble 2016.
In real life, Charlotte and Becky’s friendship was forged by their shared formative years in NXT. Onscreen, Charlotte and Becky regularly stole the show as part of NXT’s “Four Horsewomen” (alongside Sasha Banks and Bayley) and debuted on WWE’s main roster together in July 2015 as two-thirds of the “PCB” trio, joined by Paige.
Yet, while partnering helped give both of them an initial boost on RAW and SmackDown, a split between the two rising stars seemed inevitable—and, well, it was. Charlotte won the Divas Championship (this was still a thing then) a couple months later and started relying on help from her dad, Ric Flair—a two-time Hall of Famer and, of course, “The Dirtiest Player in the Game.” That left Becky—years before establishing herself as “The Man”—a victim of Charlotte’s pernicious ambition, and it set the stage for their Divas Championship match on January 24,
The match started at a brisk pace, with Becky, the challenger, the clear aggressor
As Becky followed up with a clothesline to the outside, Ric Flair—”Dirtiest Player in the Game,” remember—got physically involved by trying to pry Becky off of Charlotte, which led to a major momentum shift, as Charlotte used the distraction to attack Becky from behind. Back in the ring, Charlotte maintained control with a big
Becky regained control with an electric chair drop, slamming Charlotte down from on her shoulders. An attempt at a Bexploder suplex was countered by Charlotte into a neck breaker, who then went for her Figure-Eight Leglock—which, showing the familiarity the two had with each other, was countered by Becky, who soon successfully hit a pair of Bexploders. Becky went for her own submission finishing
Charlotte followed by landing her first spear of the match, but it couldn’t put Becky away—and Charlotte’s subsequent attempt at a baseball slide kick ended up only hitting her dad, with Becky taking advantage of the chaos, and securing the Dis-Arm-Her. Ric Flair ended up doing what Ric Flair does, though, and threw his suit jacket onto Becky in mid-hold, distracting “The Lass Kicker” long enough to allow Charlotte to hit an eye poke and a second spear, for the victory and successful retention of the Divas Championship.
Charlotte—a truly bad sport back in these days, though her assault on Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series shows not much has really changed—continued to assault Becky after the match, leading to Sasha Banks entering the ring. But she wasn’t there to save Becky—she kicked her and threw her out of the ring. Banks then made it clear that she was targeting the Divas Championship, attacking Charlotte—her former Beautiful, Fierce Females (BFFs) teammate in NXT—with a Banks Statement. This led to a three-way match at WrestleMania 32 a couple of months later, for the newly-minted WWE Women’s Championship—which was also won by Charlotte.
Charlotte and Becky Lynch have ebbed and flowed between friends, enemies, and frenemies multiple times in the following years, colliding memorably in a Last Woman Standing match at WWE Evolution this past October, and a three-way TLC match last month, also involving Asuka. At this year’s Royal Rumble—happening January 27 in Phoenix—Lynch will challenge Asuka for the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and while it hasn’t been confirmed, it seems like a safe bet that Charlotte will find her way into the 30-woman Royal Rumble match.
You can go back and revisit this match (and the entirety of the Royal Rumble 2016) on the WWE Network.