Behind the scenes, Lita saw all the possibilities of what Becky Lynch could be and fought to make it happen. In front of the camera now, she is positioned in a storyline to try to take down the character – at its fully realized potential – she helped create.

The WWE Hall of Famer, who will face Lynch for the Raw women’s championship at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on Saturday (Noon, Peacock) in Saudi Arabia, was a backstage producer for WWE when Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks were called up from NXT in 2015. She saw the company had “very definitive plans” for Flair and Banks, but not for Lynch. Lita, whose real name is Amy Duma, become one of the backstage voices fighting for Lynch and trying to ease the young performer’s insecurities about where she fit on the main roster.

“When I met her, I saw the star that she could become and so I really tried to encourage her and fight for her and put that doubt to bed as much as possible,” Lita said in a Zoom interview. “I was just always there rooting for her. When I saw her kind of flip that switch and become the biggest superstar male or female that the company had seen in quite some time, I was just her number one cheerleader and felt so happy that she was able to fight through that doubt and the doubters to become the superstar that she is.”

Lynch lit the rocket she’s still riding at SummerSlam 2018 and became The Man: A brash, confident and sometimes unfiltered version of herself that the pro wrestling world fell in love with. What Lita saw was Lynch finally listening to the voices inside herself, realizing she had nothing to lose and going for it – eventually becoming part of and winning the first women’s match to main event WrestleMania in 2019.

“I’m either going to float around here as a mid-carder or I’m gonna get fired or explode, but I’m just gonna go for this,” Lita said of Lynch’s mindset at the time. “That’s what she needed to be to get there. Playing by the rules wasn’t going to get her to be The Man.”

Their experience and real-life friendship has become the backdrop for the story around their match at Elimination Chamber. Lynch’s on-screen persona is a little differrent now. Gone are any past feelings of needing to prove herself and instead this Becky Lynch oozes brazen overconfidence, already calling herself the GOAT and Big Time Becks.

“This iteration of Becky Lynch is not the one I’m most proud of if I have any sort of hand in fostering this version of Becky Lynch,” Lita said.

The opportunity to finally face Lynch in a match came about somewhat spontaneously. WWE had asked Lita to return for her second women’s Royal Rumble, but she got a surprise immediately after finishing the match – even with her plane ticket home already booked.  

She was asked right after competing in the Rumble if she wanted to challenge Lynch for the title in what will be the 46-year-old’s first true singles match since 2006 and first championship opportunity in more than 15 years. Lita said WWE is pretty well aware she works best when she doesn’t have time to overthink things and wonder if the company “had this plan or not” to ask her that way because of it.

“I was still high from the adrenaline and I didn’t think of all of the reasons I shouldn’t and might not be able to pull it off,” she said. “I didn’t think about anything. I just was like, ‘Ya let’s do it.’ That’s about as much thought as I gave to it.”

A week after accepting the challenge, Lynch referenced their relationship during a promo last week on “Monday Night Raw.” Lynch said she “worshiped” Lita growing up and went as far as saying that “without Lita there would be no Becky Lynch.” Lita sees an even deeper connection, one she thinks creates a more meaningful story beyond being just a dream matchup of past and present stars.  

“I wasn’t supposed to catch fire the way that I did,” Lita said. “It was the fans that immediately rallied behind me and were chanting my name from jump that I was like, ‘whoa what’s happening here.’ And then after the fact the office was like, well I guess we’ll highlight her more. It just kind of happened that way. The same thing. Becky wasn’t supposed to be the star. She just was. I wasn’t supposed to be the star. I just was.”

Now they get a chance to create something special on short notice. Lita wouldn’t have it any other way. She is trying to build off her training for the Royal Rumble where she spent as much time in the ring as possible working out at the indy promotion HoodSlam in Oakland, Calif., and at an AcroSports gym among other things. Her focus now has just been wind sprints and cardio to prepare for a longer match.

“Ideally, would I’ve liked more time, yeah, but I feel like I’ve been able to make the most of this time and I feel good,” she said.

Doing things on the fly has worked for her in the past. Perhaps Lita’s most famous match was her and long-time rival Trish Stratus becoming the first women to main event Raw in 2004. Lita talked about how they didn’t know they would be in that spot until the day of the show and had no idea that the opportunity would inspire other women.

“We were just kind of happy to have the opportunity and look where that landed us, in the history books being talked about so many years later,” she said.

Unlike Straus’ match with Flair at SummerSlam in 2019, Lita doesn’t sound ready to close the book an her career anytime soon after this dream pairing with Lynch. She isn’t approaching it as a one-last-match scenario, especially with a possibility of a title reign should she win, and is open to sticking around WWE or returning again at a later time.

“Anything’s possible, anything could change,” Lita said. “I’ll worry about that after the Elimination Chamber. But I’m approaching it all with an open mind and ready to go with whatever’s thrown in front of me… This is a hell of an opportunity. You don’t know where it will lead you, so don’t spend a lot of time wondering. Just take the opportunity and make the most of it and leave it up to fate”

What’s there now is an opportunity to become a five-time women’s champion in WWE by knocking off one of the biggest stars in the industry – one she had a small hand in creating.

“Five’s my lucky number,” Lita said. “It’s been my lucky number since I was a kid. It would be incredible. Everything so far has just kind of lined up perfectly, so I’m just hoping to continue to ride that wave and have my suitcase be a little bit heavier on my way back from Saudi Arabia then it is on the way there.”