{"id":105177,"date":"2021-12-02T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=105177"},"modified":"2021-12-01T17:02:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T22:02:03","slug":"liv-morgan-becky-lynch-perfect-foil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/12\/02\/liv-morgan-becky-lynch-perfect-foil\/","title":{"rendered":"How Liv Morgan Became the Perfect Foil for Becky Lynch on Raw"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At <em><strong>SummerSlam 2021<\/strong><\/em>, <strong>Becky Lynch <\/strong>answered the collective cries ringing from <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s<\/strong> newly returned live audiences: \u201cWe Want Becky.\u201d It was the chant that dogged Lynch\u2019s longtime rival <strong>Charlotte Flair<\/strong> throughout the latter days of her program with <strong>Rhea Ripley.<\/strong> The people got what they wanted, but it was not \u201cThe Man,&#8221; the scrappy brawler who stole the show from Flair and <strong>Ronda Rousey<\/strong> in their run leading up to their history-making <strong><em>WrestleMania 35<\/em><\/strong> match that returned. Rather, Lynch\u2019s new heel persona \u201cBig Time Becks\u201d has been in effect since her return from parental leave, an egotistical champion with the braggadocio and wardrobe of <strong>UFC\u2019s<\/strong> <strong>Conor McGregor, <\/strong>seething with entitlement but a livewire of complicated emotions where Flair is concerned<strong>. <\/strong>Fresh off an emotional champion vs. champion match opposite Flair at November\u2019s <em>Survivor Series<\/em>, the next challenger for Becky Lynch is <strong>Liv Morgan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"An emotional Liv Morgan attacks Becky Lynch: Raw, Nov. 22, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HOqf8mCqT9c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan &#8211; Opposites at Play<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>More Similiar Than They Seem<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In many ways, Morgan resembles pre-2018 Lynch: despite a deficit of opportunities to shine to her full potential, she\u2019s managed to strike a chord with the WWE audience as a performer to sympathize with and root for. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/12\/03\/liv-forever-analysis-morgans-future-wwe-creative-and-more\/\" target=\"_self\">Morgan\u2019s journey in WWE<\/a> has been even more fraught than Lynch\u2019s. Whilst Lynch struggled to escape the shadow of her former friend, Flair, Morgan\u2019s struggle has been to be seen at all, by successive creative teams that consistently come up empty in terms of marketing Morgan as a singles performer. Her time as a tag team player was also rocky, her tenures with <strong>The Riott Squad<\/strong> interrupted by the respective releases of comrades <strong>Sarah Logan<\/strong> and <strong>Ruby Soho<\/strong>, then known as <strong>Ruby Riott<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The nascent rivalry between Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan has drawn deeply off their respective histories with key figures in their pasts, as well as each other, providing the definition that both their characters need. The Lynch\/Morgan rivalry began with a snipe that blurred the lines of kayfabe and reality, with Lynch twisting her words of encouragement to Morgan-that she would be a champion by the time that Lynch returned from parental leave-into a dig that Morgan had underperformed. A friendship turned sour is a well-worn trope in pro wrestling rivalries, but drawing on this real-life exchange to insult Morgan brought Lynch the stunned silence of the crowd that has generally been reluctant to see her as a heel.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Matters Become Heated on Raw<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>On November 29\u2019s <strong>Monday Night Raw<\/strong>, broken friendships of the past continued to be the bedrock of the rivalry. Morgan fired back at Lynch alluding to her fraught relationship with Flair, which WWE was eager to capitalize on for <em>Survivor Series 2021<\/em>. The fourth wall shattered utterly when Morgan accused Lynch, and her inflated contract, of being the reason her \u201cfriends were gone.\u201d There was no chance that she meant anyone other than Logan and Soho, and the allusion to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/11\/18\/john-morrison-isaiah-swerve-scott-released-wwe\/\" target=\"_self\">WWE\u2019s glut of releases<\/a> in 2020 and 2021, and their emotional impact, by an active WWE performer during a live broadcast of Monday Night Raw, was in some ways riskier than anything that has ever left <strong>MJF\u2019s<\/strong> mouth on a Wednesday night on TNT.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps unwittingly, friendship has become a weighty theme in the \u201cBig Time Becks\u201d storyline, a defining factor in the characterization of Lynch and her rival, Morgan. Lynch\u2019s real-life relationship with Flair and the way it is portrayed in kayfabe for WWE audiences is a two-headed monster of love and hate. In the annals of pro wrestling history, Perhaps only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/aew\/news-who-kenny-omega-former-golden-lovers-tag-team-partner-kota-ibushi\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kenny Omega <\/strong>and <strong>Kota Ibushi<\/strong><\/a> have told a longer and more complex story of two individuals who exist perpetually on the knife\u2019s edge of love and rivalry, with what is real and what\u2019s a \u201cwork\u201d near impossible to discern at key moments, their volatile symbiosis fueling their accomplishments. \u00a0\u00a0This bond is Lynch\u2019s weak spot, but also the source of some of her greatest victories: she could not be who she is without Charlotte, even now.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan make Raw Title Match official | MONDAY NIGHT RAW | WWE ON FOX\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cLCPB-BsRCU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Proving Ground for Liv Morgan Against Becky Lynch<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As for Morgan, with just a few promos on Lynch in the last month, she\u2019s come closer than ever to having transcended the trough her entire WWE career has been spent in, pitched half-heartedly between \u201cvixen\u201d and \u201cingenue\u201d. Morgan, the amiable tag team player or the baby sister of the WWE women\u2019s division looking for encouragement from trailblazers like Lynch, is gone, replaced with a Joan of Arc figure charging forward waving the banner for her released compatriots even as she learns to stand on her own without the Riott Squad, defying the hypocrisy and self-indulgence of Lynch with fiery, righteous indignation and a touch of sarcastic lampooning. Morgan no longer has the support of Logan and Soho, but they are far from forgotten and loyalty is an appealing quality that sets her apart from Lynch, whose most significant friendship is a total loss of envy and detestation. And whoever scripted them, the allusion Morgan made to the role that paying top-tier Superstars like Lynch plays in WWE\u2019s releases was fan service not soon to be forgotten.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan\u2019s &#8220;glow-up&#8221; continued on November 29\u2019s Raw as she led <strong>Bianca Belair, Dana Brooke, <\/strong>Ripley, and <strong>Nikki A.S.H<\/strong> to victory in a 10 woman tag match pitted against Lynch, <strong>Zelina Vega, Carmella, Tamina, <\/strong>and <strong>Doudrop.<\/strong> The transition for Lynch to a heel character has been met with skepticism, but as short-lived as it will most likely prove to be, her promo battles with Morgan might have begun to clinch the \u201cBig Time Becks\u201d character, while showcasing new depths to Liv Morgan as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At SummerSlam 2021, Becky Lynch answered the collective cries ringing from World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s newly returned live audiences: \u201cWe Want Becky.\u201d It was the chant that dogged Lynch\u2019s longtime rival Charlotte Flair throughout the latter days of her program with Rhea Ripley. The people got what they wanted, but it was not \u201cThe Man,&#8221; the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":105223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,25,317,4,3,320],"tags":[163,403,217,7872,3041,1778,7975,897],"class_list":["post-105177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-women","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-becky-lynch","tag-charlotte-flair","tag-liv-morgan","tag-nikki-a-s-h","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-riott-squad","tag-ruby-soho","tag-sarah-logan"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}