WWE RAW Women's Champion
Becky Lynch spoke with Ariel Helwani on
ESPN MMA before her upcoming title match against
Shayna Baszler at
WrestleMania 36 on April 4 and 5. Lynch covered topics including wrestling without a live crowd at the
WWE Performance Center, what night her match might be on, and if she was worried about wrestling at the WWE PC with the current coronavirus outbreak occurring.
Typically, the WWE Universe is in the building to give instant reactions to the Superstars in the ring, but over the past couple weeks that hasn't been the case. Lynch said she's dealt with smaller crowds before and finds she just has to shift her thinking when it comes to connecting to the fans watching at home.
"I came from the independent circuit, so I'm used to wrestling in front of nobody," Lynch joked. "I remember wrestling somewhere in Killarney—back in Ireland—wrestling in front of seven people, and I almost think that might be worse because you can hear everything they're saying. So, there's nobody there where you might hear some disrespectful comments from time-to-time. I'm somebody who has fed off the energy of the crowd and it's been my connection with the crowd to get me where I am and I know without those people I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.
"It's a different shift in your brain, you have to use a different part of you because you know at the other end of it there's millions of people watching, so you have to connect to them differently. You're not going to get that same gratification when you go out there in front of an audience and they let you know how well you're doing, or how well you're not doing, but they're responding to you constantly. There's less self-gratification, but more concentration on the nuances of what you're message is."
This year's
WrestleMania will take place over two night and WWE has yet to announce what the cards will look like for each show (
announced card here, no spoiler changes are included). Lynch was asked if she knew which night she would be on, and she believed it would be on Saturday, April 4.
"I'm pretty certain that it is on the first night that's on Saturday," Lynch said. "I believe that it's on Saturday."
With the current coronavirus outbreak, WWE had to move its taping to the WWE Performance Center where they spent a majority of this past week taping upcoming episodes of
RAW,
SmackDown,
NXT,
205 Live,
and of course, WrestleMania. Lynch talked about if she had concerns wrestling at the Performance Center and precautions WWE has taken to keep the talent and crew safe.
"No, I didn't have any concerns for myself," Lynch responded. "We setup a very hygienic system and really limited the amount of people that are there. I think the only thing I'm conscientious of is now that we're back, and we just isolated ourselves for a couple of weeks to make sure we don't have any symptoms before we go out in the world again.
"[WWE is] staggering everything, if you don't have a reason to be there then get the hell out of there. If you have a match or a segment then you're there with a minimal amount of crew to shoot it. Then, of course, when you come in you're tested. Your temperature is taken, questionnaire is filled out, and the doctors are there to meet you as soon as you walk into the building."
You can check out Lynch's full comments in the video above.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit ESPN and give a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
