10 Times WWE Broke Your Heart And Didn’t Even Care

3. Women Trouble

Asuka MITB
WWE.com

Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks' 2016 rivalry over the Raw Women's Title may have elevated 'The Queen' to a level that matched her grandiose nickname, but the prize itself and the former 'Boss' of NXT were both significantly wounded from the regular and disjointed switches.

An accidental storyline even emerged from the repeated trades between July and December. Flair was unbeatable on pay-per-view but unprepared on Raw. Each of Sasha's wins came on the flagship but were undone by her rival within weeks on the next available supercard.

Whilst the matches hit peaks at points, the entire programme continued to be diluted by the repetition, with Banks' hometown main event Hell In A Cell loss to Charlotte a sad midpoint rather than the fitting reversed-result ending it should have been.

The rationale for that loss was that WWE were building an undefeated record on pay-per-views for Flair, presumably ahead of a strong WrestleMania programme - a thing that never even occurred after Sasha took final fleeting revenge cheating to help babyface Bayley pin her one month before the 'Show Of Shows'. And thus, a series that should have corralled all the promise and perfection from their collected NXT runs was cruelly crushed.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett