Backstage Rumor On Why Nia Jax Punched Becky Lynch In The Face

Arguably the biggest news to come out of the world of wrestling this week (we did crown a new WWE Champion, after all) was the incident that occurred between SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and Nia Jax on Monday Night Raw.

During SmackDown LIVE Women’s division invasion of Monday Night Raw, Lynch sustained a broken face and severe concussion due to a hard punch from Jax. As a result, Lynch will no longer be facing Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey this Sunday at Survivor Series. During Tuesday’s SmackDown LIVE, Lynch chose Charlotte Flair to replace her in the Raw vs. SmackDown match against Rousey on Sunday.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com, who broke the news of Lynch’s injury and removal from Survivor Series, said the incident was treated as an unfortunate accident when Lynch and Jax returned backstage. However, after the severity of Lynch’s situation was determined, the feeling changed drastically.

Sapp made mention of Jax’s heat in a series of tweets.

Note to anyone retweeting this today: the “that sucks, shit happens” mentality changed pretty quick

— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) November 13, 2018

Sapp went on to say that the attitude backstage is that Nia is careless.

Nia is careless is the attitude backstage right now

— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) November 13, 2018

Sapp also said that members of SmackDown LIVE are mad at Jax.

Nah they’re mad at her. At least the SD Crew is

— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) November 14, 2018

An anonymous Twitter user by the name of Rovert with a penchant for breaking wrestling news (especially women wrestling news) said that Jax is considered “lazy, dangerous and a bully” by her female peers.

Lazy, dangerous and a bully are the three big labels Nia Jax has among the other girls.

— rovert (@SoDuTw) November 14, 2018

Hey maybe talk to her opponents once or twice.

There have been dozens of incidents public and private.

If it was an accident more people in the industry would be defending her. Virtually no one is. She punched Becky full force in the face.

— rovert (@SoDuTw) November 14, 2018

According to a report by The Dirty Sheets, Nia reacted in anger after being struck hard by Lynch and responded by deliberately striking Lynch straight in the nose. The report also says that Nia has “major heat.”

The wrestling insider term for a hard strike to the head is “potato” (or “potatoed”). Wikipedia has potato defined as “a strike to the head which makes real contact. A wrestler who endures one or more potatoes is likely to potato the perpetrator back, which is known as a receipt.” A potato shot can be accidental.

Nia ‘liked’ this fan tweet, which seems to confirm that she got upset with being hit from behind by Becky.

Becky is the one that got behind Nia when someone was already getting Nia so why would Becky think it was a good idea to come from behind

— Maximus (@Maximus15243141) November 16, 2018

Nia also ‘liked’ this tweet saying Becky “should’ve took it like a real champ.”

I mean if Becky is “the man” than she should’ve took it like a real champ or is that all a make believe 🤷‍♂️😂

— Maximus (@Maximus15243141) November 16, 2018

On Wrestling Observer Live, Dave Meltzer confirmed Nia’s heat and tried to explain her tendency for injuring wrestlers (h/t RingsideNews.com).

“Nia… I don’t know, I really know what to say about Nia. There’s heat on Nia, yeah,” Meltzer said.

“I mean if she’s never hurt anyone before and accidents happen it’s one thing but it’s not. This is not an isolated incident. You know honest to God the most dangerous thing on that Raw show was perpetrated by Brock Lesnar not Jax, but you know it didn’t end up with an injury, having said that, that’s not a defense of Nia.”

“It’s too many people, you know. She’s big and when you throw with that weight of punches you know you don’t want to look soft it’s tough. I mean big guys in pro wrestling have that same problem. Either they throw stuff that looks really weak and soft or sometimes they hurt people because they’re so big and strong. I mean that’s part of it but you have to work safer.”