How Charlotte Flair Is Beating Her Dad’s WWE Legacy
Charlotte Flair will win here 17 Women's Championship within the next few years. It'll be treated as this huge, game-changing moment. The announcers will scream words and phrases like "MAKING HISTORY!" and "IMPORTANT!" until they're hoarse. Charlotte will cry. She'll get ticker tape falling from the skies, pyro, and other ballyhoos. Her father will join her for the celebrations, smiling from ear-to-ear despite the cynical transparency of it all.
And none of it will mean a thing.
The approach is all wrong. Ric's late-career reigns were similarly disposable, but he redefined what it meant to be a "World Champion" in professional wrestling while with the NWA. He was 'The Man.' Aside from engaging in countless classic rivalries highlighted by (literally) some of the greatest matches of all time, he made the belt feel like the most prestigious prize the sport had ever seen, and himself the most prestigious competitor. Again, he competed at a better time for big runs than his daughter, but all 10 of Charlotte's don't add up to one of Ric's early NWA tilts.
Unless WWE somehow pull six legendary Charlotte title runs out of thin air over the next few years, hers will be a hollow record. It's a shame, too. The audience, performer, and her father all deserve better.
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