She’s one of World Wrestling Entertainment’s queens of the ring – and Becky Lynch reckons a Glasgow girl might soon be there with her.

Dublin born Becky is one of the most popular wrestlers on WWE’s Smackdown brand, which comes to the SSE Hydro on Thursday.

However the company’s NXT promotion, devoted to stars of the future, currently features Nikki Cross, from Glasgow.

Becky believes Nikki has what it takes to join the main roster.

“I think Nikki is amazing. I can’t wait to face her and work with her,” enthuses Becky, speaking over the phone before a Smackdown TV taping.

“The way she moves around is terrific, and the aggressiveness she has is great. She can be a real asset for the women’s division and I would love to see her on Smackdown.”

Last November the WWE taped their top two shows, Raw and Smackdown, in Glasgow.

“Glasgow, and Scotland in general, has the most amazing fans,” she raves.

“I defended my women’s championship last year and the crowd was insane for it.”

Wrestling’s match results and stories might be decided in advance, but the bumps and bruises are real. For Becky, the journey to performing at huge stadium shows like Wrestlemania was a long and tough one.

She fell in love with the sport when she saw stars like Mick Foley and Lita around 2000 and 2001, and both she and her brother went to wrestling school. Becky wrestled for smaller promotions, both at home and in America, where she earned a reputation as one of the best female wrestlers around.

However a head injury forced her out of action in 2006, and she stopped wrestling for years to focus on other jobs, working as an airline stewardess and a stunt woman. However she found herself getting in the ring again, and was hired by WWE in 2013.

“I know it’s cheesy, but they always say that if you love something then let it go, and if it comes back to you then you know [it’s what you are meant to do],” she says.

“Having wrestling gone from my life for so long meant that I knew what it was like without it. Every day now I’ll wake up and be told to do things, and put hard work in, but it seems effortless, because I know what the payoff to it all is.

“When I wasn’t wrestling I was searching for something that I could feel strongly about as much as wrestling, and I never found that, so when I came back, and was able to make my living out of it, that was unbelievable.”

Last year the WWE separated its roster into two brands, Raw and Smackdown. Becky became Smackdown’s first women’s champion and her character is one of the company’s most popular, with a striking look based around steampunk.

“It’s my brainchild and you just try and put more layers on it,” she explains.

“I don’t really consult with anyone about where it’s going, I just come up with ideas and try to put them out there and hope they connect with the audience. It’s trial and error.

“Steampunk is a style that I just thought was cool and hadn’t really seen it before in wrestling. It seemed like something that you could do a lot with, because there’s all this creativity and innovation.”

Despite her personality, Becky isn’t ruling out a shift to the dark side sometime.

“I’d like to be a heel [wrestling slang for a villain] again, absolutely. However there are still so many elements of my personality that have yet to come out – I’d like to do more comedy, for example, and show all the elements of Becky Lynch.

“Then maybe an attitude adjustment would be in order, but we’ll see how things pan out.”

Women’s wrestling has not always been treated well by big companies, but the past few years have seen females gaining much more respect. Last year one of WWE’s big supercard events, Hell In A Cell, was headlined by a women’s match, and Becky clearly believes the company’s equality drive is working.

“The next goal for us is that all the women want to main event Wrestlemania. As far as getting opportunities we really are getting them, so hopefully we’ll get ladder matches and Elimination Chamber matches down the line.

“We’re already getting to do cage matches, tables matches and that’s really exciting. We just need to keep moving in the direction we are moving in and the destination will be beautiful.”

WWE Smackdown, Thursday, SSE Hydro, £39 and up, 7pm.

JONATHAN GEDDES