Becky Lynch might be known as “The Man” in WWE, but she clearly didn’t win that name by leading the wrestling promotion’s trivia team. In a first not just for “Celebrity Jeopardy” but for “Jeopardy” as a whole, the pro wrestling superstar delivered zero correct responses across the first 60 clues.
According to popular “Jeopardy” statistics tracking site “The Jeopardy! Fan,” Lynch is the first known contestant to have no correct responses across both the regular and Double Jeopardy rounds. She did manage to win the race for the buzzer several times against rivals Rachel Dratch and Macaulay Culkin, but ended the first round with three incorrect responses and “Double Jeopardy” with another incorrect guess.
When Ken Jennings interviewed Lynch, he noted that she’s an eight-time WWE champion and may be used to working in a “more raucus and rowdy room” than the “Jeopardy” studio.
“You know, maybe that’s what’s throwing me off,” Lynch responded, to chuckles from the crowd. “You know, normally, I’m a genius, but it’s a bigger arena, it’s a whole thing — that’s the problem.”
Jennings told the crowd they should scream and throw chairs to make her feel more at home.
She finally got on the board (while still holding a negative score) in the “Celebrity Jeopardy”-only Triple Jeopardy round talking about butts, responding to the clue, “A synonym for ‘butt’, it’s also ‘an unclean animal’ according to the King James Bible.” Her correct response: “What is ‘ass’?” Lynch celebrated ecstatically, yelling, “I’m back, baby!”
Lynch even managed to get another question correct immediately following that one, responding to a clue about Alicia Silverstone’s film yellow suit that went missing with the correct response, “Clueless.”
She went into Final Jeopardy with -$500, compared with Dratch’s $23,000 total and $16,800 for Culkin. Since they want all the celebrities to be able to play, Lynch was given $500 to play in that last round.
Final Jeopardy let Lynch finish strong, joining both of her compatriots in getting the question right. In response to clue, “Exhumed in 2017 to settle a paternity suit, his mustache had ‘preserved its classic 10-past-10 position’ according to the Spanish press,” Lynch nailed it with “Who is Salvador Dali?” That gave her a grand total of $1,000 in phony “Celebrity Jeopardy” money, compared with $33,600 for Culkin — and $33,601 for the champ, Dratch.
Lynch took her trivia infamy in stride, writing on X in response to her 60-clue dry spell, “I never stop making history.”
While Dratch advances to the semifinals, both Lynch and Culkin’s performances will benefit their charities, each bringing in $30,000 as their consolation prize. She played for cancer organization The V Foundation, in support of WWE’s signature charity, Connor’s Cure. Inspired by a young fan who left an impression on wrestlers after a social media campaign to meet his favorite, Daniel Bryan, before passing away from cancer, the charity supports the search for a cure to pediatric cancer.
“And as a new-ish mother — hence the mom brain — I can’t think of a better cause,” Lynch warmly joked while discussing the charity.
Lynch’s autobiography, “Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl,” is set for release in March.
