If youre looking for an example of what poor booking can do to a feud, check out Paige versus Charlotte, a battle between two second-generation female wrestlers who are both very accomplished in the ring but yet performed to long bouts of silence. WWE had to realize that Charlotte wasnt working as a white meat babyface and needed an edge, but rather than have her turn while dialing Paige back a little, WWE pushed ahead with making Paige more of a villainess, then gave up and seemingly turned Charlotte too. The result? A crowd Sunday that couldnt make up its collective mind who to cheer, aside from screaming Woooo! whenever someone mocked Ric Flar (or Flair did something at ringside). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM-9FH6GRpQ To be fair, the decision to have Charlotte act more heelish is probably the right move in the longterm. But if shes going to be a carbon copy of her father, then shes going to have a very short shelf life. Charlotte can use her famous father to accelerate her turn, but if shes going to just Woooo! and ape his signature spots (Flair Flop, Figure Four, strut), then its not going to work.
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.
