In Defence of Irish Wrestlers: A positive spotlight on some of our biggest sports stars
Ryan Brolly
In Ireland we have immense pride when it comes to our sporting heroes, both in team and individual sports.
Take rugby for example, where the Irish excel or in individual competitions like mixed martial arts where Conor McGregor rose to become one of the biggest stars on the planet.
Another sport which Ireland has continued to produce a conveyor belt of talent in is boxing, where the great Katie Taylor continues to dominate.
We give these people vast and justified amounts of plaudits in the media and in general day-to-day conversation - so why isn’t it the same for Irish wrestlers?
For years, a crop of Irish talent has been consistently at the top of their game in the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, the WWE, but it has been radio silence from Irish media.
This is despite them entertaining millions of fans per year, competing for gold and showing off their extreme amounts of ability when it comes to numerous aspects of the sport; from the talking part of the business which aims to sell shows, or their in-ring activity. In fact, when Irish media do give attention to wrestling stars from this island, they will berate and disrespect them and their fans.
This was shown in a recent interview conducted by Tommy Tiernan on his weekly chat show with Becky Lynch, where he said that what she does is “not really competition”, and that her fans are “eejits”.
The aim of this piece is to deter people from that train of thought and provide a positive spotlight on three prominent Irish wrestlers; the aforementioned Becky Lynch, Finn Bálor and Sheamus.
Before delving into their careers, it is worth admitting that professional wrestling does have a predetermined result before the competitors go out there, but it is by no means ‘fake’ which is a criticism levelled at them consistently.
Becky Lynch deserves high praise. Hailing from Limerick and having trained and performed for 11 years before joining the WWE, she is part of the movement in professional wrestling to take women away from the highly sexist ‘divas’ era.
Becky Lynch is one of the most successful female wrestlers in the WWE.
This was a time in which women wrestlers were treated solely as eye candy for audiences and not as serious performers. In 2016, Lynch among others, dispelled the ‘diva’ label as she became the champion of WWE’s flagship Friday night programme Smackdown.
This helped to establish her as a main player, and her rise after this would be meteoric. Lynch would go on to be a key player in many events, even headlining WWE’s first women-only premium live event, which was called Evolution.
She would collect both main Women’s championships at once during a match with Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair, and would then go on to make history by taking part in the first women’s fight in the main event at the iconic WrestleMania.
She would begin calling herself ‘Becky Two Belts’ during this time, something Irish media should have taken more notice of and praised.
Lynch would never lose her title, relinquishing it after her real life pregnancy. She is also a former tag team champion with wrestling royalty Lita and they picked up a win at WrestleMania 39 in 2023.
She has the title of being Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s most popular wrestler of the year in 2019, and in 2022 was included in the ‘Top Female Game Changers of the 21st Century’ according to Glazia Magazine, further highlighting her positive influence in inspiring the next generation.
An equally iconic wrestler in the industry is Finn Bálor from Bray in County Wicklow. With his unique character of ‘The Demon’ he has been able to become one of the most popular wrestlers in the world.
On his debut for WWE’s flagship Monday night programme, Raw, he earned the right to fight for the top championship in the company, showing how highly he was valued at the time.
He would go onto win the belt at the first time of asking, but would never get the chance to defend it after a horrific shoulder industry sustained during his maiden title win.
He would bounce back to become Intercontinental Champion in 2019 at WrestleMania, a title often viewed as one of those with extreme levels of talent and work-rate, and he would hold it for three months.
He has competed for the top prize multiple times in the past few years, but would come up short and has just faced a loss at WrestleMania 39 to WWE Hall-of-Famer Edge in a match where Bálor legitimately got a head injury that required 14 staples.
Finally and probably most recognisable of them all, Sheamus deserves a mention. As the oldest of the three fighters, he has understandably had the most successful career within WWE.
Sheamus was born in Dublin and has the title of being the first Irish-born WWE champion when he defeated John Cena.
Sheamus has won almost everything there is to win in WWE, only needing the aforementioned Intercontinental championship to enter into wrestling’s illustrious club of Grand Slam champions who have held each belt once.
That is his current objective, and he came extremely close to winning the title at WrestleMania 39.
Sheamus has enjoyed nearly 15 years at the top of his profession and like Lynch and Bálor, gets little to no attention from Irish media, which downplays his incredible achievements.
As a country, we should now give attention to and celebrate all of our stars in whatever sport, and not have people like Tommy Tiernan try and mock them through ignorance and a lack of understanding of their profession.
Ryan Brolly is a History and International Relations student at Queen’s University Belfast and a Sport Reporter for The Scoop.