This day in Pro Wrestling history - 30th January: Becky Lynch turns 30

It is Becky Lynch’s birthday today

With the WWE Universe still buzzing about the Royal Rumble, this edition of ‘This day...’ presents two Royal Rumbles that took place on January 30. The first came 12 years ago which would be won by Batista and the other six years ago which was the only 40-man Rumble in history.

In addition to this, January 30 marks the birthday of one of the most popular Divas on either roster – The Irish Lass kicker Becky Lynch.

The former SmackDown Women’s Champion will turn 30 on the eve of this year’s Rumble and even though she is stuck on the pre-show in a six-women tag team match, the night would be special for her.


#1 Becky Lynch’s birthday – 30th January 1987

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Young Rebecca Quinn was a multi-sport athlete in her youth, dabbling in swimming, basketball and horse riding, but it was her desire to get into professional wrestling that helped her steer clear of the alcoholism that had affected her during her teenage years.

Born in Ireland, Quinn started training under Fergal Devitt – who later became known as Finn Balor- when she was just 15 years of age. Going by the name of Rebecca Knox, she wrestled for multiple promotions based in Germany, Canada, England and the United States.

Despite huge promises and rave reviews, Knox’s wrestling career was seemingly over at the age of 19 when she damaged her eighth cranial nerve during a match in German Stampede Wrestling.

She would return to school, earn a degree in acting and try alternate career paths like being on plays and working as a flight attendant.

It would take five years for her to return to wrestling – this time as a manager in Shimmer Women Athletes. Two years later, WWE contacted her in order for her to appear on NXT and ever since then, the rechristened Becky Lynch has lit up the company.

She has had memorable feuds with the likes of Charlotte and Bayley in NXT and debuted on the main roster as part of the Women’s revolution.

Whereas Charlotte and Sasha Banks dominated the Women’s title scene on Raw, Lynch got a new lease of life due to the brand split and took her opportunity to become the first SmackDown Women’s Champion.

She would lose her title to Alexa Bliss, but Lynch is pretty much the No:1 female performer on the brand right now. Happy Birthday, Becky!

#2 Batista wins his first Royal Rumble – 30th January 2005

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The 2005 Royal Rumble is pretty significant due to the fact that it launched the main event careers of two of the greatest stars in the WWE over the next decade. Both John Cena and Batista were given the mantle to lead the WWE and the duo would win World titles at the ensuing Wrestlemania.

In fact, the final four were Batista, Cena, Edge and Rey Mysterio – four stars who would go on to win the Rumble in the future and become multi-time WWE Champions. But first, one of them had to win the ‘05 Rumble.

The plan was for Batista to win the Rumble by eliminating Cena, but the Animal accidently eliminated himself in addition to Cena. Vince McMahon rushed to the ring and immediately tore his quadriceps – before restarting the match with Batista and Cena as the participants.

Batista made no mistake this time, tossing Cena out of the ring to win the Rumble. He would beat Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania, whereas Cena would win the WWE Championship from JBL.

#3 Alberto Del Rio wins the 40-man Rumble – 30th January 2011

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2011’s Royal Rumble PPV had just 4 matches on the show and it was headlined by a 40-man Royal Rumble. Incidentally, this Rumble match was only 27 seconds longer than the longest 30-man Rumble in WWE history.

The match started with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and came down to Randy Orton, Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio.

Orton would eliminate the British Superstar, but Del Rio would take advantage, tossing the Viper out to seemingly win the Rumble. But a non-eliminated Santino Marella would re-enter the ring and deliver a Cobra to Del Rio.

The TD Garden in Boston cheered vigorously for the underdog Marella, but Del Rio recovered in time to eliminate the Milan Miracle and win the match. Del Rio would not be lucky in his title match at Wrestlemania, losing to Edge in the latter’s final WWE match.


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