10 Major Mistakes WWE Has Made In 2016 (So Far)
6. Not A Natural Selection
While we’re talking about Charlotte and the Women’s Championship, it was a significant error in judgement to have her win the brand new title at WrestleMania 32 and become the first WWE Women’s Champion in five and a half years.
It was a legitimate anti-climax to see Charlotte win. The brand new Women’s Championship had been presented by WWE Hall Of Famer Lita, and the importance of the new title and the retiring of the much maligned Diva’s Championship (derisively nicknamed ‘the butterfly belt’ because it looked like a Barbie doll accessory rather than a wrestling championship belt) had been underlined throughout the night.
Whatever you might think of Lita’s talent as a wrestler, her impact on the business was huge, and despite going out on a low note in the WWE with her heel run, she’s most famous for having made huge strides for women in the company, and having inspired scores of women to take up professional wrestling as a passion and as a career.
Having Sasha Banks win the new title was the obvious move, and the one most people expected. Despite barely appearing on WWE’s main roster since being called up a year ago, Sasha’s seminal work in NXT acted as a phenomenal calling card, and even now there are still occasional chants for her on WWE television. She’s as over as she can be, considering how little TV time she’s had in the last twelve months.
If they wanted a swerve, however then Becky Lynch was clearly the best second choice. Having her popular fiery babyface character win the title at WrestleMania would have made a natural segue from Lita’s build-up of the new championship and given us some continuity from past to present, kicking the new Women’s Championship off in fine style.
Either Banks or Lynch would have been a great choice. Instead, Charlotte’s drab title reign continued almost without a blip, simply swapping one belt for another. The lack of a definitive, defining new champion for the new Women’s Championship took almost all the wind out of the sails of this groundbreaking decision.
It should have been a WrestleMania moment… and it wasn’t.