4 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw (April 26)

4. Overkill In Overdrive

Charlotte Flair Sonya Deville
WWE

We get it, WWE, Charlotte Flair is a spoiled bully who gets what she wants. The problem is, we all already knew that. You didn’t need to beat us over the head repeatedly.

But that’s how the writers handle things, bludgeoning us with a hammer until our brains are mush. On Monday, that was recapping Charlotte beating up a referee and being suspended “indefinitely,” which ended up being one week, as she showed up on Monday, apologized and was immediately reinstated. She then forced the ref in question to apologize to her, and then berated the official during and after her match later that night.

Even Nia Jax hit it correctly observing that Flair is a spoiled brat who is WWE’s golden child. But did we need all that to drive the point home? Not really. They could have taken half the time used for character overdevelopment of Charlotte and actually focused on developing Rhea Ripley – the current Raw Women’s Champion – as she is somewhat lacking a character.

And really, that’s the crux of it: WWE spends a full segment (including a recap from last week) and then a match and aftermath reinforcing stuff we already knew about Charlotte, and there’s still a lot under-developed about Ripley. Priorities, people.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.