Last week, The Inquisitr reported that Becky Lynch and Ric Flair got into a Twitter exchange with each other after the Raw Women’s Champion called out Taylor Swift for her song “The Man.” After Lynch told the pop star that Swift wasn’t “The Man,” Flair got involved by telling Lynch that to be the man, she had to beat the man — implying that he is still “The Man.”
At the time, it all seemed like some innocent fun between the WWE alums. A legend and the current biggest star in the company engaging in a well-intentioned social media rivalry to entertain their millions of followers. However, it turns out that Flair really wants to own the trademark after all.
According to WrestlingNews.co , Ric Flair, LLC filed for “The Man” trademark on August 26, 2019. The terms of the filing include everything from using the name on merchandise to television and live appearances. Essentially, it covers all of the areas where Lynch — or anyone else — could use the moniker for monetary gain for themselves.
Flair has been using the nickname since 1976, mainly referencing to it in promos by saying, “to be the man, you got to beat the man.” In 2014, he also released an autobiography called To Be The Man . With this in mind, Flair probably has valid grounds for ownership over the name. At the same time, this latest development does come across as an attempt to stop Lynch from taking advantage of the alias.
Ric Flair states he has been using “The Man” professionally since 1976. https://t.co/qaNvjYq9T3
— HeelByNature.com (@HeelByNatureYT) August 30, 2019
Lynch has been using the nickname since 2018, after she turned on Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam and started calling herself “The Man” on subsequent shows. Shortly after the pay-per-view, she also adopted a no-nonsense anti-hero persona to go along with her new nickname, which led to her becoming extremely popular among the fans and winning a historic WrestleMania main event earlier this year.
Never one to shy away from sharing her thoughts on social media, Lynch had some thoughts on the matter. As noted by Sportskeeda , she took to Twitter to respond to the filing, simply claiming that she’s “The Man.” Her tweet suggests she isn’t taking Flair’s actions seriously, but it remains to be seen how much this will affect her career going forward.
Should Lynch have to stop using the nickname on television, it will remove an aspect of her character that fans have gravitated towards over the last year. On the other hand, she doesn’t need the nickname either, as it’s her attitude and in-ring work that made her such a huge star.