Irish wrestler Becky "The Man" Lynch has said that being friends with her childhood idols The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin is "wild" and that she has been ticking items off her bucket list at a rapid rate.
37-year-old Limerick-born Lynch, who is the first woman ever to Main Event on WrestleMania and who also won the Royal Rumble, has just published her new book, Becky Lynch - the Man, and she told host Patrick Kielty on Friday's Late Late Show about how her career began.
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"My brother got me into wrestling," she said. "He watched it on TV and I’d walk past and I was the worst, I’d say, `don’t you know all that stuff is fake, it’s for babies’ and he’d say, `no, it’s really good’.
However, it was Irish American wrestler Mick Foley who sparked her interest.
"He absolutely captivated me," Becky said. "The way he talked and he wrote his own book and when I decided to be a wrestler, I also wanted to write my own book and he has become a very close friend and he was able to help me with my book.
"People say don’t meet your heroes because you’ll only be disappointed, well, Mick Foley spent six hours on the phone to me going through my book line by line and The Rock has become a mentor to me and Stone Cold Steve Austin, if I have a question, I can call him . . .
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"It’s like, what is this life? And then my favourite female wrestler, Lea, I got to have a match with her in Saudi Arabia where only a few years ago women weren’t allowed to wrestle at all. All of these things that are bucket list items are all happening at a rapid pace."
"We’re on the road 52 weeks a year and you almost don’t get time to sit back and take it all in. It’s wild"
Speaking about the dangers of climbing into the ring, Becky said, "It’s pretty dangerous. Hahaha. There is no way to fake it, you can’t fake gravity. A lot of the punches are real but that’s the thing I love about it. it’s an art, it’s a craft. It’s finding the best ways to elicit an emotional response from the audience."
WWE is in over 170 countries and speaking about its global success, she said, "There’s nothing like it because it is everything - it’s athleticism, there’s high stakes, there’s drama, there’s romance, there’s comedy and it’s all happening live in front of an audience and anything can go wrong at any moment, which is exciting and exhilarating."
Her husband Seth Rollins is also a wrestler and they have a three-year-old daughter. Speaking about managing being on the road and family life, Becky said, "My husband just got knee surgery on Tuesday so his rehab is running after a little three-year-old now.
"Normally, we travel with her and we have a tour bus. We’re on the road four days a week in different towns every night all over the place and she comes with us."
Her mother wasn’t keen on her going into wrestling so Becky initially worked as an air hostess for Aer Lingus for two and half years until her dad encouraged her to follow her dreams.
Five years ago, she became the first woman to main event on WrestleMania and defied doubting Thomases. "When I told a friend I was going to Main Event, `he said it’s nice to have dreams but be realistic’," she said.
"But I thought damn right, I’m gonna Main Event! That’s what I left home for. That’s why I kept my mam up at night worrying.
"It felt right and the thing was I didn’t want to be the Main Event as a token gesture. I was the Main Event because people were behind me and they were invested in the story I was telling. They wanted to see me win and I won! Becky two belts!"
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