WWE WrestleMania 36 Night 1 Results: Becky Lynch Beats Shayna Baszler, Continues Stagnant Dynasty

Becky Lynch defeated Shayna Baszler after countering the Kirafuta Clutch with a roll-through as The Man retained her Raw Women’s Championship.

The loss was a costly one for Shayna Baszler, who is still in the getting-to-know-you process with the main roster audience.

This time last year, Becky Lynch was coronated as WWE’s top star—man or woman—after main eventing WrestleMania 35 and becoming the first WWE Superstar to defeat Ronda Rousey.

Lynch has held the Raw Championship for the year since she won it, and in an era where top stars are few and far between, Lynch became the latest post-Cena star to fail to pull WWE out of its years-long viewership slump.

As talented and popular as Lynch is, WWE is no closer to becoming a transcendent, mainstream entity than it was with the likes of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Rousey or even Brock Lesnar positioned as a top star. John Cena discussed the harsh reality of WWE’s struggles to find a top star in a recent broadcast of After the Bell with Corey Graves:

“[WWE] needs what I’m not sure it can produce, and that’s…just the state of where everything is now, which is weird because it kind of always corrects itself. So, we’re in a day and age where it needs a frontman or woman. It needs one, maybe two, definable characters to absolutely be the reason, and that’s what will be able to define what the era is because it takes on those personality traits of its top star. 

It would have been a fool’s errand to ask Becky Lynch, or any wrestler under WWE’s currently scattershot administration. As a woman on top of WWE in the age of social justice and representation, WWE had all the ingredients to build Becky Lynch into a transcendent star.

But the lack of a major star—tantamount to Ronda Rousey—to work with, in addition to larger problems within WWE, continued to plague ratings, Lynch was rendered collateral damage for a promotion that continues to hemorrhage viewership—COVID-19 or not—with no signs of turning around.

After losing her WrestleMania debut clean, Shayna Baszler—despite her brilliant run in WWE NXT—may have a low ceiling in WWE moving forward. NXT stars transitioning to the main roster have a notoriously sketchy track record, and two high-profile matches with Baszler reportedly underwhelmed Vince McMahon.