Although I haven’t really watched WWE’s professional wrestling shows of late, I sometimes take a glance if I know that a couple of the promotion’s best wrestlers are competing against each other. That’s usually the case when you get a match between Japanese wrestler Asuka and Irish wrestler Becky Lynch. The two of them work very well together, and they’ve had some serious four-star competitions that rise above the usual WWE storyline.
So last Monday, Lynch and Asuka were battling each other on WWE’s Monday Night Raw show. They’re competing in a “No Holds Barred” match, which usually involves lots of foreign objects and plunder. You’ll see trash cans, folding tables, steel chairs, all used as weapons and all are legal in the match. It’s essentially a match full of plunder.
And in order to explain what you’ll see in the embedded links below, know this. Professional wrestles use a series of hand signals between each other to confirm that they’re both okay, that all the German suplexes and frog splashes may have looked brutal, but they’re not injured. And one of those signals is to have one wrestler squeeze the other wrestler’s arm or hand. This will also happen when a referee needs to check on a wrestler who might physically look injured (i.e., a concussion or an internal injury). A quick hand squeeze, all is well.
So here’s the situation. Becky and Asuka are on the top corner of the ring. Becky sets up Asuka for a “Man-handle slam” (Becky’s variation of a pumphandle slam, this time executed off the top turnbuckle). Both wrestlers complete the move, and they land on a table. (Also note – when the table breaks, it’s actually safer for the wrestlers than a non-breaking table, and it also looks more painful to the viewer. That’s why you see folding tables used in wrestling, and not those oak ones from Raymour & Flanagan).
Ref counts 1, 2, 3, Becky wins.
And both competitors quickly check on each other. I mean, it was a brutal fight and all.
Becky grips Asuka’s arm. All is good.
Asuka grips Becky’s … um …
Since the WWE’s official feed quickly cut out at the end of the match, you’ll just have to watch the feed on this embedded Twitter link.
You see for yourself.
Yep. Whether it was the angle or the positioning or whatever, Asuka reached for Becky’s arm … and all of a sudden I have a flashback to Mr. Whipple and the Charmin toilet paper commercials.
Okay. Excuse the bathroom humor for a second. Honestly, I’m a very broad-minded person, and I get it – sometimes you might feel you’re on first base and are trying to steal second …
But honestly, I wouldn’t read anything into this. For all we know, Asuka may have just thought she was reaching for Becky Lynch’s arm and suddenly she felt something softer. And she had to check it just to make absolutely sure. And for all we know, this could have just been the end result of an impromptu “rib” (in wrestling parlance, a “rib” is a practical joke, either in the ring or in the locker room).
Trust me, this isn’t some underlying secret hentai shipping WWE storyline going on here. It’s just two wrestlers making sure each other are okay after what appeared to be a brutal match.
But if I turn on AEW wrestling tonight, and all of a sudden I see Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti recreating the baseball verses from Meat Loaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” in the ring …
Hee hee hee hee hee hee…
Chuck The Writer 
Oh come on, Chuck.
You obviously discounted the remote possibility that she was just trying to tap out…albeit a little late.
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Chuck:
Becky Lynch’s Manhandle Slam is not a pumphandle slam. It’s a uranage, or, more specifically to WWE fans——-the ROCKBOTTOM!! Remember the skit she did with Rock and Baron Corbin about three years ago?
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