10 Wrestling Matches That Pissed Off Fans

9. Charlotte Flair Vs. Bianca Belair - WWE RAW, October 18, 2021

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The match between Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair on the October 18, 2021 Monday Night RAW went 21 minutes and 45 seconds.

Neither of the best matches at WrestleMania X ran longer than that. The Submission match at 'Mania 13 only ran 20 seconds longer. It went longer than every match at WrestleMania X-Seven beyond the main event.

You'd think, then, that Charlotte Flair Vs. Bianca Belair was a match of major importance, booked with a patient build with significant stakes.

No.

It went to a disqualification, advanced nothing in the wider narrative picture, and literally only functioned to eat into an exhausting TV runtime that exists not for the fan experience but to extract every last morsel of advertisement revenue. Three hours is too long to book, much less watch, for a promotion that has long lost the ability to do something interesting beyond 10 minutes on a good (or slightly less awful) week.

The match itself was really good, which infuriated the crowd all the more. They were into the intensity, Charlotte remembered she has a back and actually bumped on it, the near-falls pulsed with drama.

And then it ended, like it was a five minute angle prelude, when Charlotte decked Bianca with a chair. Those cheeky bastards made Bianca no-sell it and make a comeback, too, to quieten the droning jeers directed at the booking. Belair was agented to sell the attack for all of four seconds.

Why do any of this? Knowing everybody was going to hate it, they couldn't even commit to their own bullsh*t.

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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 current Undisputed WWE 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!