Why did Becky Lynch start calling herself "The Man" after walking out on the winning end of a championship feud for the first time in 2018?
Said feud was against Charlotte Flair, whose father Ric Flair made the line famous, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man," referring to the world champion/top dog in the company.
It's also a reference to Johnny Cash's song, "The Man Comes Around", about how all corruption and false bravado will stop with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
By referring to herself in a way that both disregards her womanhood and appeals to her newfound sense of being "the authority" or "the person in charge" (when the evolution of women in athletics often requires top stars to fight through and within systems to alter perceptions of what women can do physically), Becky is effectively invoking The Man Is Sticking It to the Man, as per her attempt at a heel character. Lampshaded by Ronda Rouseyhere.
With her confirmation as a babyface under the same gimmick, point 3 would be downplayed in favor of further emphasizing points 1 and 2, taking the idea from her pompously setting herself apart from every other woman to a more noble element of She Is the King.
When Becky started using the moniker of "The Man" and the catchphrase "The Man comes around", her ring attire became much simpler and mainly, if not exclusively, black.The Man... in Black.
