Less than nine months after giving birth, ‘The Man’ is back and the sportsbooks clearly think Becky Lynch will prove any doubters wrong at next year’s Royal Rumble.

The British bookies specialising in boxing odds as well as American betting firms have installed the Irish-born queen of the ring as the favorite to claim a second crown at the 35th staging of the event, the latest update follows an explosive return to the ring for the 34-year-old.

And for any fans that think she may have lost her edge after becoming a mum, just ask Bianca Belair if she agrees after being on the receiving end of a 27-second demolition.

Success in 2019 where she conquered her ‘bestie’ Charlotte Flair has clearly influenced the sportsbooks, with betting companies like bet365 offering odds as short as 7/2 on Lynch taking the Royal Rumble. Sasha Banks is joint second favourite (8/1) with Lynch’s long-time friend Flair at 10/1. There’s been a lot of interest in Rhea Ripley who became the first Australian to win the women’s championship at WrestleMania earlier in the year, the 24-year-old from Adelaide is trading between 8/1 and 12/1 as per William Hill betting platform.

Lynch made her shock return to ring action at the recent SummerSlam after social media posts about how well her training was coming along were becoming hard to ignore. But it was still a shock to see her when WWE Smackdown Women’s champion Bianca Belair was supposed to defend her title against Sasha Banks.

Belair made her entrance before it was announced that Banks was unable to compete and her new challenger was Carmella. In a further twist the ring music played was Celtic Invasion, the theme for ‘The Man’, before out waltzed Becky Lynch for her first bout since May 2020.

She quickly took care of Carmella before challenging Belair, clearly a challenge the champion felt unable to refuse. The whole show appeared to be a little overwhelming for Belair, and just 27 seconds after the bell the champion was coming to terms with losing her title.

“Right now, I’m just trying to collect my thoughts,” Belair said afterwards. “Everything happened too quickly. I was ready to fight Sasha Banks, and Becky came out, which was an amazing moment. I’m happy to be a part of that, but I lost my title, and right now, I’m just emotional.

“I feel defeated. It was bittersweet, Becky Lynch, what she has accomplished inside and outside the ring. She is a legend in the making.”

The rags to riches tale of Lynch is a great one for the sport. She was born in Limerick in the mid-west of Ireland and raised in the tough Baldoyle suburb of Dublin. Her parents split when she was just one-year-old and her interest in wrestling stemmed from her brother Richy, the two would watch it together on TV before they both started training at a wrestling school when Becky was just 15.

She soon started in a tag team pair with her brother before leaving as a broke 17-year-old to make her name on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Starting off in Canada, Lynch progressed to the WWE in 2013, and has become one of the biggest names in the sport.