5 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2022

4. Charlotte’s Purpose?

Charlotte Flair Ronda Rousey
WWE.com

Just trying to wrap some thoughts around Charlotte Flair’s Royal Rumble performance and how it factors into WrestleMania 38 plans, and we’re coming up a bit confused.

Flair entered the Rumble saying that if she won, she’d get to pick her opponent. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Instead, Ronda Rousey eliminated her last to win. Along the way, Charlotte tossed Lita, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair, among others.

Logically, the winner of the Rumble could pick Flair to face at WrestleMania, but Rousey just tossed her from the Rumble to win. So that would seem a bit odd. And the money match is Rousey versus Becky Lynch, with Ronda trying to get back her only WWE loss and the title that went with that defeat.

So, what does that mean for Charlotte? There would have been a built-in feud had Flair been eliminated by someone else – say, Lita – which could kick off a feud between them to lead to Mania. Instead, Charlotte tossed three potential challengers and was runner-up, meaning the heel champion has something to hold over all of them. That leaves a returning Asuka or Bayley as potential challengers.

Basically, if Rousey doesn’t pick Flair (which would be a strange move), then Charlotte being in the final two and tossing potential challengers was stupid.

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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.