Credit: WWE.com
Charlotte Flair is a symbol right now for everything that is wrong with wrestling. I do not mean that as a dig on HER. SHE is great. I am a huge fan. I'm talking about everyone that has a podcast, or a blog or a social media platform on which they talk about how WWE's push of Charlotte is killing women's wrestling. There is a lot of sentiment amongst fans that Charlotte gets featured too much and wins too many titles. Observing these sentiments from influencers and other fans is annoying to me, because on one hand, people want to see someone be pushed to be the biggest star possible, but at the same time people don't want to see anyone actually get that push
Last year, fans were happy to see Seth Rollins win the WWE Universal championship from Brock Lesnar. People liked Seth Rollins. And as much as he soured people on him with his incorrect usage of social media, and things he was saying in interviews... what really happened is a simple case of how fans are easily invested in the idea of a wrestler getting a push. People like seeing the climb up the mountain. People do not like when summiting the mountain means now you are kicking the other wrestlers off the top. You start to see people on socials saying that so and so is being overpushed and overexposed. It's like people don't even really grasp what a push means. It's like people do not understand what it means to be on top in this business.
Charlotte Flair is not positioned as the top women's wrestler in the industry because of her father. People love to detract from legacies by saying the only reason they are in the spot they are in is due to their ancestry. Fact is, Charlotte Flair is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Note I did not use gender in that sentence. Not saying she is THE greatest. But, one of the greatest I have ever seen. I am perfectly fine with her getting opportunity after opportunity because she is that good. I do not look at wrestling belts as participation trophies where everyone deserves to get a run with the belt just for showing up to work. I hated people trying to tell me Kofi Kingston deserved to be WWE champion because he had been there 11 years. And I still don't see that dude as a main eventer. Charlotte Flair is not debatable for me. Flair is GOD.
I have heard a lot of people say that Charlotte should not have beaten Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania because that win would have made Ripley a bigger star. I have heard people complain that it further diminishes Ripley that she has yet to regain the strap and she has even less momentum now that Io Shirai has won the strap. Again, these people have a limited understanding of the wrestling business. I am not very high on Shirai myself. In my world I wouldn't have changed the title. BUT. I think that WWE is probably going to shift gears and have Charlotte take the Raw title off of Asuka because of course. I think that Ripley is probably going to win the belt from Shirai. WWE might well use the fan sentiment that WANTS to see Ripley reacquire the gold to stretch out a chase for the title. I disagree with having Ripley cry after losing at Mania and portraying her as insecure. But they haven't done anything to really damage her. You see, to win a bunch of wrestling championships, you have to LOSE a bunch of wrestling championships. Like Charlotte Flair.
If I had the book, I wouldn't have Charlotte beat Asuka any time soon. In fact, I think that as great as Charlotte is, Asuka is ALSO one of the greatest wrestlers I have ever seen. I think that she is about due to beat Charlotte in a championship match to keep things from getting too far out of hand. I hate when people call one sided things a rivalry. John Cena and Randy Orton had a lot of matches but when John Cena won MOST of them... that was not a rivalry as much as it was LOL CENA WINS. Again, understanding how the wrestling business is, you DO need to establish that clear and sharp delineation between number one and number two. Ric Flair gave too much. The Rock gave too much. Roman Reigns gives too much. To be the man, you have to not get beaten by too many men, or beaten too often by any one man. You do not establish wrestling superstars by having them lose to all the top talents on the roster. You just don't.
I completely understand fans feeling like it is boring and predictable to have someone win all the time. Look at Brock Lesnar. Brock has put a few people over since his return to WWE in 2012. Largely, you knew if you saw Brock Lesnar, he was going over. That's how it's done. An argument can be made that there are matches Cena shouldn't have won during his run. Most glaringly, that match at SummerSlam against The Nexus. BUT. The way wrestling works is that you build up threats for your top star to take down. I would argue that it was too soon for Cena to be taking The Nexus down. Maybe Cena shouldn't have beaten Bray Wyatt and Rusev at Mania. Maybe. I don't know. But what I DO know, is that you need to feed the beast.
Charlotte Flair is a beast. I will be disappointed if she ends her career without having won between 25 and 30 titles. Somewhere in there WWE needs to let her hold championships longer. I think her first WWE Divas reign transitoning into the Women's belt was the longest she had. Every other time she would hold the belt for weeks or a couple of months. I would be here for her holding the gold for YEARS. It would not be burying people to have them repeatedly try and fail to capture the gold. Flair is best as a heel. Have her cheat. Feet on the ropes. Grab some tights. Rake the eyes. If she doesn't always go over clean, that gives babyfaces an out where you can say "if she didn't cheat they would have won". That is part of the beautiful art of wrestling, how sometimes losing makes you look better than beating someone else.
Ric Flair was the master of taking someone who wasn't really a main eventer and by the time he finished with them, you had seen them look like a million bucks against one of the greatest of all time. Some people say Ric Flair IS the greatest. So you could lose to him and look better than if you had beaten someone else. I love that. The more you establish Charlotte Flair as God, the more she can make wrestlers look great for even being next to her, even if they lose.
If you don't like it, you better learn to love it because it's the best thing going today! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!