Flames

"The Man", part 2

Survivor Series season was always electric. Seth missed the traditional matches, but the invasions Raw and Smackdown had done in the past couple years were always worth watching. Add in the feud between Becky and Ronda, and they had to make the viewing room backstage bigger to keep all the Raw stars out of sight of the roaming cameras.

Finn was sitting beside him this time, not Dean, but the anticipation still felt the same to Seth. They all knew roughly how it was going to turn out, but the finished, live product was a beast of its own making. Put Becky Lynch into that equation and anything could happen.

First the Dis-Arm-Her on Ronda, then walking—no, strutting—out to the ring when seven Raw women were already there and waiting for her took some guts. "Good odds for The Man, I'd say," Finn grinned.

Seth kept his grumble to himself. He'd claimed the title years ago, but even he had to admit that Becky had earned the right to wear it too. Now the Smackdown women were storming the ring, but it was still Becky that drew his eye.

Then there was the punch. It was hard to track at first. The cameras didn't have a great angle on it, but as soon as Becky was shown on the mat, hand to her face, Seth knew it didn't look right. "What the hell, man? What happened?"

"Nia's fist happened, by the looks of it." Finn's impish joy had dimmed considerably as he watched. Blood was smeared across Becky's face and arms, but she was still going at it, battering Ronda with a chair while the other Smackdown women cleared the ring.

By the time Becky finally left the ring, gently ushered by Peyton Royce, the source of the blood was more obvious, and people backstage were already scrambling. Out of the corner of his eye, Seth saw Sasha and Bayley running towards the vehicle bay, but his gaze was drawn back to the monitor, to Becky at the top of the stairs, arms spread wide and freckled with her own blood. That was an iconic shot right there; just like her attack on Charlotte, it would be in any retrospective she had, the closing shot of her Hall of Fame video. Becky Lynch: The Man.

"Ambulance," Finn said, breaking Seth's reverie with a pat on the knee. "Standard, right? Whenever there's blood from the head?"

Seth nodded, but he wasn't really listening. The chaos backstage was louder now and even though the monitor was showing something else completely, he couldn't get the image of a triumphant Becky out of his head.