Becky Lynch remains one of the most popular female WWE Superstars in recent memory. The Man’s meteoric rise to Superstardom back in 2018 is well documented. It propelled her career to the absolute top, which culminated in her winning both the RAW and Smackdown Women’s Championships at WrestleMania 35, defeating both Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey in the main event of the Show of Shows. She was also a mainstay in NXT and was integral to its growth.
According to a report by The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, some reasons behind the reason for NXT not being pushed as a third brand surround Becky Lynch’s big return in 2019.
At first there was the attempt to make it seem to be the third brand, but two things happened. The first is, they kept losing, even when sending top stars from the main roster they lost. While winning in viewers, a key note was when Becky Lynch, the biggest star in wrestling at that moment, went to NXT to face Rhea Ripley, and lost head-to-head in 18-49 to Nick Jackson vs. Rey Fenix. The second was COVID, and for a while, Vince McMahon wanted to keep the main roster talent away from NXT with the idea that NXT was getting COVID breakouts and he didn’t want that spreading to the main roster to a significant degree (which also killed the Raw Underground concept).