8 HUGE WWE Royal Rumble 2023 Predictions You Need To Know
5. Will 'The Queen Reign Supreme?
Yes, in a manner of speaking.
If Charlotte Flair and Sonya Deville's SmackDown television feud leads to a match on the Premium Live Event - as of this writing, it hasn’t been added - Flair will definitely retain the title. But nothing so far since her return has suggested the quality here will be worthy of the enormous stadium and stage.
Flair's not connecting as a babyface and not yet clicking back between the ropes. The latter can be put down to rust (for now), but the former owes much to terrible creative and the sense that an idea is being forced for reasons beyond canonical logic.
Bargaining was good for the one week she screamed at the referee to give her the belt before thanking her afterwards, but the insincerity bit only works for performers who can act it out to begin with. The character feels like a bust and Deville's not the wrestler in the form to arrest the slide. If it happens, she definitely loses, but the bigger issue here may well be the lack of any representation of the strap at all.