Sometimes in professional wrestling, accidents become part of a story.
Former WWE star Nia Jax recently appeared on The Sessions with Renée Paquette and delved into the infamous punch heard ‘round the world when she accidentally clocked Becky Lynch in the face when Team SmackDown invaded Monday Night RAW on November 12, 2018 ahead of the Survivor Series pay-per-view event. Jax described how the producer of the match told her that the action needed to look real, and when her opponents started to hit her extra hard, she fired back.
“…So, SmackDown was invading RAW and the producer of that match, won’t name any names, basically was like ‘this needs to look real, say sorry later,'” Jax recalled. “…Being the larger person, I feel like people think that, ‘Oh, we can hit the sh-t out of her, she’ll be fine,’ which is true for the most part, I get whaled in the back and whatever, I’m okay. But I remember right when they invaded, everybody came after me, which is OK but I was getting nailed, like geez Louise, okay, I get it.
“But finally I find Trin [Naomi], I f*****g love Trin, and I was like ‘Okay, sis, let’s sit in this corner. And we were just sitting in the corner talking sh-t or whatever, and I get punched in the back of the freaking head. And I just turn around to go clear the person, my fist wasn’t closed, so I didn’t punch the person. But it did connect, and I didn’t even realize it was Becky, I thought it was Lana.”
Becky Lynch wasn't supposed to get busted open and bloody on #RAW. Nia Jax accidentally really hit her hard in the face.
Honestly though, it's a botch that turned out well…
Becky's bloody face will now be forever remembered as the night she solidified herself as a legend. pic.twitter.com/DzoN3ojEjq
— WWE FAN (@__WWE_FAN__) November 13, 2018
Jax then described her immediate reaction in the aftermath of this unforgettable moment; she stated that she was “freaking out”, but when she apologized to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, he laughed it off. Jax went on to note that she quickly reached out to Lynch, who told her that she was okay.
“…[I] didn’t realize anything happened, like honestly, then I go back to Trin and then I look around, and I see that there’s blood everywhere,” said Jax, “And then I look and see that Becky’s down or whatever. So, then we go back over the segment, and everything that happened, and I went, ‘Oh s—, was that from me?’ And I get backstage, and she got taken up to medical immediately, and I’m also freaking out because they’re slow replaying it and Kevin [Dunn] sends the replay to Vince [McMahon] in gorilla and it’s replaying slow and they’re cutting it to every single angle.
“So, I go back to check on her and of course, medical’s telling everyone to get out and give her some space because everybody wanted to make sure she’s okay. And I go over to Vince and tell him that I’m sorry, and he’s like laughing. And he was just like, ‘Well, it’s not ballet.’ So, I just leave it alone, and then I’m like texting Becky to make sure she’s okay, I’m bugging the sh-t out of her and she said she’s okay.”
Jax then recalled what WWE’s social media team and “The Boss” told her following the incident. She described how WWE’s social media team told her to “go with it” when she had a cut on her knuckle due to the accident. That’s exactly what “The Irresistible Force” did; she posted a playful tweet about her hand and sparked even more backlash from the fans. In doing so, she impressed the WWE Chairman; driven by the heat Jax was getting, McMahon changed the plans and had the powerhouse win her match at WWE Survivor Series.
“Then at Survivor Series…no, before that, I had this little cut on my knuckle,” said Jax. “And I don’t know if it was from the hit, but I was texting Nicky [WWE’s social media guy], and he was like, ‘You’re getting so much sh-t online’, and I asked him if I should go with it. And he said to just run with it. So, I sent out a tweet like some stupid, ‘Is anybody going to ask me how my hand is doing?’ And of course, the internet went ablaze and hated my guts. And that night at Survivor Series, somebody else was supposed to go over, but it got back to Vince how much the internet was hating me and he changed the finish. And he said that we were going to have Nia go over because he wanted the heat.”
Looking back on the experience, Jax also noted the “insane” reaction she got. From then on, she took McMahon’s advice to utilize the heat and play into her role as the hated heel.
During her time with WWE, Nia Jax would claim the WWE RAW Women’s Championship, and she became a two-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion before the company released her on November 4, 2021, due to “budget cuts.”
Related: Nia Jax Reflects On Her WWE Release, Details ‘Changing Of The Guard’ In The Company
