10 Times WWE Booked Themselves Into A Corner

8. Charlotte Flair's Record Chase

Baszler Fiend
WWE.com

WWE is intent - very transparently - on promoting Charlotte Flair as a legend on par with her father, which has manifested as a career-long quest to equal Ric's (WWE canon) achievement of 16 World Title wins.

Surpass is more likely, given her relatively brief run in the WWE system. This has repelled many fans away from Charlotte, which is exceptionally counterproductive. The chase in 2019 resulted in unpopular, division-destroying wins (at the expense of Asuka) and forgettable developments met with complete apathy (a very tired programme with Bayley). The frequency and value inflation have collided to ruin the arc; the titles that Flair wins barely mean anything, they are so easily captured, and the arc is so obvious and imposed that the core of the premise - fans should want to see a worthy challenger ascend - was lost years ago. We're not even that deep into the plural.

This ongoing arc has now threatened the integrity of two of WWE's Women's divisions.

Charlotte won the Women's Royal Rumble match, but the idea of challenging Becky Lynch or Bayley was so over-familiar as to be completely untenable. She is now set to challenge Rhea Ripley, undermining NXT's sterling, multi-stranded division, and she didn't even entertain the idea of heading back to SmackDown, rendering it an ice-cold afterthought.

WWE had to give Charlotte Flair something to do, and that something revealed just how stale Women's wrestling has become after its Evolution peak.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!