Art is imitating life for Becky Lynch.

The first SmackDown women’s champion has spent different points of life struggling to get back to what she desired.

In 2006, at 19, she began a seven-year break from wrestling because of an injury and tried her hand at real-world jobs. It left Lynch with a void, a feeling she had unfinished business in wrestling, but not sure how to get back into it. Professionally, she has been out of the title picture for more than a year and half after holding the belt for just two-plus months.

“It was incredibly frustrating,” Lynch said of her time away from the top of the card.

Lynch’s storyline for SummerSlam on Sunday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn has her pitted against her most recent rival, Carmella, the SmackDown women’s champion, and real-life/WWE best friend, Charlotte Flair, in a triple-threat match. Flair was a late addition to the match after beating Carmella three weeks ago on the night she returned to “SmackDown Live” following a long hiatus. Her presence has complicated things.

The SummerSlam match is the possible culmination of Lynch’s on-screen struggle that has seen her miss out on earning title opportunities in two Money in the Bank matches and the women’s Royal Rumble.

“Almost there, almost there, almost there and never really fully settling into it,” Lynch said in a phone interview. “Yeah, I’ve been the champion before, but it was a hiccup and then it’s been nearly two years getting back to it and not even having a title match in a year and a half. This is huge for me. It really has been my whole journey.”

During that time, Lynch has watched Flair dominate the division. Flair has won a title three times since Lynch last held gold and six times overall in WWE. Lynch said they remain best friends — though there has been on-screen tension between them. One of the reasons the two are so close is their competitiveness with each other.

“And that’s with everything, from when we’re in the gym, who can lift more, who can go faster,” Lynch said. “And I think that’s also what drives us. That’s why we get along so well, because we are both the exact same way, and we want to be the best.”

Lynch said she thinks their friendship could survive the other leaving SummerSlam as champion. She would, however, like to give Flair a different perspective in their relationship.

“I’ve had to watch her dominate as champion for a long, long time, and until now I’m like, ‘Well, it’s time for her to sit back and know how it feels,’ ” Lynch said.

Lynch knows what it’s like to feel a void. She told WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross on his podcast that during her time away from wrestling, she wrote in one of her diaries that “I feel like I’m not doing what I’m meant to do.”

No matter what job Lynch had — flight attendant, actor, stunt woman, personal trainer — she knew what she wanted to be doing.

“I would do all of these, and it was basically just breaking wrestling up into different sections and doing them all individually, which was exhausting,” she said. “So exhausting.”

After a tryout, Lynch eventually found her way to NXT in 2013. She worked herself into the middle of the women’s revolution that will include the first all-women’s pay-per-view “Evolution” at the Nassau Coliseum on Oct. 28. Lynch said the women are out to prove they “can put on a show as great as any other.”

She has championed the idea of adding women’s tag-team titles, but doesn’t expect it to happen until WWE can find a way to make it work logistically because of the limited number of women on each brand’s roster. “Raw” has 14 active women and “SmackDown Live” has 11.

“So if you have four people going for the tag titles or six, it’s just, how many tag teams are you going to have and who’s going for the titles?” Lynch said. “When you consider there is lots of intergender stuff at the moment with Lana and Zelina [Vega]. Naomi will often be with The Usos, so I think it’s just a mathematical thing, and I think once they figure that out then we will be smooth sailing.”

Sasha Banks and Bayley have formed the Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection team on “Raw,” but they, along with Lynch and Flair, already were considered the Four Horsewomen of Wrestling. That group, according to Lynch, “100 percent” has some unfinished business with the Four Horsewomen of MMA. Ronda Rousey and friends Shayna Baszler (the NXT women’s champion), Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are now all signed with WWE, making the possibility of a match teased last summer even greater.

“I appreciate that they liked what we did so much that they wanted to come over here and try their own hand at it, but this is what we created,” Lynch said. “If they want to work for it and they want to try to step into the ring with us, that’s one thing and that’s great and I appreciate it, but we’ve been doing this for years and they’re just getting their toes wet. Ronda of course is doing a great job, but there are still certain things you just can’t acquire in a month or two months or a year.”

Lynch’s focus right now is reclaiming the title, even if it means having to beat her best friend in the process. One person whom Lynch is happy is not set to be involved in the match is Carmella’s sidekick, James Ellsworth, who was fired weeks ago. The pair twice cost her the Money in the Bank contract. Lynch is content with already having “beat him up” and “chased him out the first time.”

It is Flair and Carmella who are now in her way.

“You want to fight for what you want, but sometimes you got to look over your shoulder because people are trying to take you down,” Lynch said. “So I think it’s perfect for everything that Becky has ever gone through that then of course Charlotte, her best friend, with who she has this moral dilemma of wanting to be champion almost on the cusp of having everything that she ever wanted, but then knowing there could end up being bad blood with her best friend.”

Flair may have to get used to Lynch being champion if the “Lass Kicker” wins at SummerSlam.

“And then [I’ll be] reigning with the title for another however many years until I retire,” Lynch said.