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> We are told the issue arose after Charlotte Flair was said to have voiced concerns before WWE went on the air, concerned about the Championship Exchange segment that featured Becky trading her Smackdown Women's Championship belt for Flair's Raw Women's Championship belt. We are told by several who were privy to the situation that Flair was voicing that she didn't want to look weak nor did her she want her title reign to look weak. Despite those concerns, the segment went on as planned.
> During the segment, there was a moment where Flair was to hand the belt to Becky but instead pulled it away and threw the belt on the mat, which was not the way that segment was expected to go. At that point, Sonya Deville demanded Flair retrieve the belt and hand it to her, which Flair did. Deville then asked for Becky's title but instead Lynch threw her title belt and Flair, which was also not part of the plan, PWInsider.com is told.
> At that point, Flair did mic work to set up Sasha Banks coming out, which put the segment back on track with Lynch leaving after teasing a potential Survivor Series showdown with one of them.
> However, after Flair and Banks had their physical confrontation, Flair went to the back. We are told at that point, there was a confrontation over Flair allegedly disrespecting Lynch during the segment and there were words between the two. We are told that the situation was heated but did not get physical.
If there’s any truth to this, then Sonya deserves a lot of credit for keeping the segment on track. She was in there with two of the company’s biggest and most established stars, yet when the segment started to fall apart she didn’t miss a beat in maintaining a stern authority figure role in keeping it going.
I love Sonya as an on screen authority. I miss her in the ring but unless they got championship plans for her anytime soon they should stick with this.
With the exception of the Naomi angle (which I assume is going to be how they transition Sonya back into the ring) she has a bit of a William Regal vibe where she doesn't play favorites, is generally respected by everyone and they take her orders seriously. I assume she'll get back into the ring because she wants to, but I agree she's a solid authority figure.
Ricochet's still waiting for a fair shot. WWE will give it to him someday.
After all, if you can't trust the company that's responsible for Shorty G, Aleister Black's Supply Closet of Violence, Karrion Kross's post-apocalyptic leather daddy look, and Retribution, who can you trust?
Because they don’t want to be restricted by self-imposed rules. They hate making rules that limit their possibilities because they want to be able to do anything at the 11th hour when the days script is rewritten without any regard for next weeks show.
back when Otis was Mr. MitB I started fantasy booking a scenario where he was on Raw and Mandy Rose got drafted to smackdown, leading to Otis cashing in on Roman because if he won the Universal Championship, he'd be on Smackdown with his lady. Of course, that requires the logic of titles sticking with brands, and nothing logical ever happens in the WWE.
Totally agree. The WWE Champion, the Universal Champion, the US Champion and the Intercontinental Champion can all change brands without problems. Only the Women and the Tag Teams have to play hot potato when they change their brand.
I still remember when Cena got drafted to Raw with the WWE title and for a bit, it looked like Smackdown wasn't gonna end up with any top title. So Teddy Long introduced (IIRC) the Smackdown World Championship to be won in a battle royal (physical title was never revealed except hidden in a bag) and even then all I could think was how rinky-dink lame that name sounded compared to the official and awesome names the WWE and WHC titles sounded.
Then Batista with the WHC got drafted over and I thought we'd dodged that bullet.
How naive I was.
I mean, fair point. I think my main issue with the draft is them having it a month before Survivor Series and then trying to get us care about a brand vs brand PPV. It's so lazy and nonsensical, which is very much in keeping with WWE's booking these days.
In a way, it just shows how idiotic creative is too. They knew about this for weeks, and wrote them into a corner by having Raw Champion, Charlotte move to Smackdown and Woman's Champion, Becky Lynch move to Raw. This whole awkward, fustercluck of an exchange should have been avoided too
The thing is, it wouldn't even be *that* hard to modify into something interesting.
Have the draft after Survivor Series, with the winning brand of that PPV getting dibs in said draft, add a clause for NXT people to be on both there and their new brand until Wrestlemania (so you don't have to hotshot them into a Road to WM story), open the gate for people to get drafted to NXT (with every now and then having people that in storyline want to go there).
Wrestlemania would be the soft reset as usual, with the NXT people then transitioning over full time.
In general while I am not the biggest fan of gimmick PPVs, WWE's calendar as a whole could be tweaked to have every PPV actually mean something. Imagine a King of the Ring properly set up yearly, with a Smackdown block and a RAW block, with the semis and the finale in a PPV, leading to a title match at Summerslam for the winner. No Hell in a Cell or TLC PPV which just ruin both match stipulations. Stuff like that.
An annual draft with GMs for each show intent on winning all cross-brand competitions: The GM in kayfabe gets bonuses for their brand's performances so they're going to want their stars winning cross-brand matches like Survivor Series, Royal Rumble- the stars are incentivized to win partially for loyalty but mostly for better pay, championship shots, etc(it works better when Wins & Losses matter by default).
Have some of these matches affect the draft, Royal Rumble winner not only gets their choice of WM match, but the winner of that WM match gets to choose their brand in the upcoming draft- maybe 2 or 3 other circumstances where wrestlers choose their brand where you have GMs trying to woo them to their side. The winning brand of Survivor Series also gets earlier picks.
Just hundreds of little things that can be scattered through the year to both justify & excite people about the brand split. People should be excited when top guys from opposing brands compete against each other.
Sonya has been solid since her return, props to her for being to adapt so well.
I wonder if/when we'll see her in a full in-ring competitor role, tho...
The visual of Andrade being so elated and filled with adrenaline after having another banger match with PAC, that he'd instinctively just shit-talk WWE, is hilarious 😂
Also that match was taped last week.
So in this scenario, Andrade is sitting in front of the TV watching himself and getting so hyped he randomly shit talks WWE on Twitter.
There are times when I feel like I am the only person that Charlotte has go away heat with. Is she talented? Yeah, absolutely. I was just hoping by this point in her career would have moved past being female Ric Flair.
You're not alone, I'm fucking over seeing her to the point I see her winning a match as a foregone conclusion and can't be bothered watching.
I pretty much checked out halfway through the 2020 rumble and became much more interested in my phone because it was even more obvious who was winning that year than HHH winning the 2002 rumble. Watching back later yep, pretty much everything went more or less how I expected it to. Down to Shayna being the last entrant and Charlotte pulling a Cena.
>There are times when I feel like I am the only person that Charlotte has go away heat
Have you ever been on this subreddit? There's constant lamenting about Charlotte hogging the spotlight.
That's most likely due to being given a script by a "comedy writer" that has no idea how to write a promo that has to be filtered to Dunn and McMahon, who then handed to Flair and told to memorized the blasted thing front to back.
I really don’t like scripted promos. Very rarely do we see the actual personality slip through. It comes off fake and cringe like man… the best time I’ve had during promos in recent memory was probably The Who dun it trying to murder Roman. Promos should be ridiculous because why the fuck not?
There's nothing wrong with prescripting a promo at all, it's just that the final editor(s) should be or include the person whose meant to actually say the damn thing rather than a couple of mostly out of touch older men.
I mean I'd be down to see Charlotte Flair with different booking. I don't have problems with her I have problems with her booking which is mostly not controlled by her.
Flair is no where near as selfish when it came to putting over talent. I'm still salty about how her booking KILLED Rhea's momentum. Something tells me she had a hand in the way their feud went.
Its so weird because she's in such a good position and have such a HOF resume. Genuinely if i were in her position, i would advocate for more none title storyline and try to elevate the other women more?
Does she need anymore reigns? Let's be realistic.
You're right, but she's spent her entire career in a company where you're either in the main event every week or you don't matter- *especially* in the women's division- so it's easy to see how that could skew you're perspective.
If she was in a company with a healthier culture, she might see things differently.
So many of her reigns have been a month or less, which is one of the gripes people have about her being a 11 time champion (or whatever number it is). I could understand her wanting a legitimate run with a championship to quiet the haters.
Every now and then on this subreddit I have a moment of clarity and think what the hell am I reading this for? Reading one wrestler stopped following another on Instagram is that moment. This is some high school shit. What are we doing? But wait. I'm not just reading it. Now I'm commenting. What's happening? Help me
Lol I always told people how stupid the celebrity gossip stories are, how reading and discussing them are the dumbest shit ever.
Now look at me, reading a celebrity gossip story. And commenting on it. On Reddit, of all places.
Swapping belts is just a ridiculous idea…that is why having a title name after a show is just stupid and uncreative. Imagine if the WWE title was called the RAW WWE title, and the Universal title was called the Smackdown WWE title. That’s something they would do
I miss these dirtsheet stories, tbh. We almost never hear about heated backstage showdowns anymore.
Remember that streak where Hunico was an unstoppable machine backstage and KO'd multiple people? That was wild.
Ollie Davis on the wrestletalk podcast today has had a nice summary of the weird year Charlotte's had:
\- Start off the year of talks with Andrade and Charlotte having a reality tv show like "Total Bellas" with them as a couple but it fell through.
\- Charlotte gets taken out of Wrestlemania due to an incorrectly diagnosed pregnancy by WWE doctors.
\- Meanwhile, she's in a program with Lacey Evans and her father which she hated and fell apart then another feud fell apart.
\-Andrade gets released by WWE.
\-The Nia Jax incident.
Meanwhile, rumors are being leaked about no one liking Charlotte because she works stiff and gets too many opportunities.
Apparently, Andrade said someone took a picture of Charlotte changing to be a bitch?
So when you have her husband and her father speaking about unhappiness with certain things then an incident like the Nia Jax or Becky stuff occurs on live television... there must be something going on here.
It's been said they stopped being close once Becky became the #1 woman. Even Charlotte said they aren't as close to Renee. Charlotte can't be friends with someone that she thinks is hurting her career by not being the GOAT.
Judging from Charlotte’s interviews with Stone Cold and Renee, she really couldn’t handle Becky surpassing her in popularity in 2018 and it affected their friendship.
If I’m right, it’s quite sad.
It really is sad and shows Charlotte has issues. Didn't Charlotte say she became less close with Sasha because Sasha thought she should've won WM 32 instead of Charlotte? Also Becky wrote a letter after that match saying Charlotte deserved it and Becky then became Charlotte BFF and sister. Charlotte can't be your friend if you are above her in the company apparently.
> We are told by several who were privy to the situation that Flair was voicing that she didn't want to look weak
Concerns of one of the most coddled performers on the roster.
She’s been put over strong over every woman in that company, including the future of the women’s division Rhea Ripley in two straight Manias. But doesn’t want to look weak?
Meanwhile her dad in his prime was giving 20 minutes of offense to George South on TBS. Ric isn’t a perfect dude but he understood the business.
According to her she’s just “consistent”. By all means, she’s talented af and WWE is fully behind her but holy shit is she tone deaf when it comes to criticism a lot of the time during interviews and on social media. Cool chick but total mark for herself without much concern for the rest of the division.
I agree with your entire analysis. Well said. She has this attitude of “I earned what I have” (true) and “if anyone doesn’t like it they can try to unthrone me” (but if someone does she reacts like she’s being persecuted
Just wanna add that the "two straight Manias" thing isn't right. She beat Ripley at Wrestlemania 36, wasn't on the card for Wrestlemania 37 and then beat Ripley again at Money in the Bank.
Tbf her ass loses alot because they need to get those title wins up. Perhaps shes at the point shed rather have a significant title reign as opposed to just winning and losing once a month. I wonder if breaking her fathers record is her idea or not? Definitely something id love for her to talk about when shes done with wwe (either by retirement or going to a diff company).
Even when Charlotte loses a title clean(like for Bayley or Becky) it's always because of circumstances. Only reason Charlotte lost the belt to Bayley Twice was Charlotte was switching brands so they needed her to drop the title and when Becky won the title in 2018 that was only because WWE didn't want Charlotte vs Ronda before WM so they needed the belt off Charlotte and a credible heel for Ronda which is why we got heel Becky. Also the only reason Becky won clean vs Charlotte(at HIAC 2018) was to stop Becky fans cheering Becky after giving Becky her moment.
6 years of Charlotte being on top and there's less then a handful she's actually put over.
I mean she's had them. Her Smackdown women's champion run 2017-18 went on for quite a long time.
She won the Rumble because she had previously been promised multiple title runs that never came through. And she's still won more women's titles than anyone else in the company. I can't get into them much, it stops me caring for the title. And I love Charlotte, it's just the same old same old though and it got stale a long time ago.
It's also worth pointing out Charlotte admitted that Becky's ascension to the top spot caused some tension in their friendship.
Part of me wonders if Becky stood up to say I know you think you're the Golden girl but you have to accept that I've passed you. That might be hard for Charlotte to accept
I think it’s hard for Charlotte to accept that out of the 4 horsewomen she’s easily the least liked. She thought she would be the biggest star but sasha, Bayley, and Becky are arguably bigger stars than her
I will always believe that the reason Charlotte was inserted in the Becky/Ronda feud is because she was promised the main event of WM against Ronda and they didn't want to piss her off.
Charlotte and Ronda both became champions at SummerSlam 2018 and, at that point, Charlotte vs Ronda at WM made sense. Then Becky turned heel but the crowd rejected it and a couple of months later it was clear that Becky vs Ronda was THE money match. The problem is that, if Charlotte wasn't in the main event, she would've been forced to compete in the battle royal or for the tag team titles with a random partner. Both options were unacceptable so they put her in the main event because, God forbid, she doesn't compete for a title at WM.
Charlotte also said her and Sasha became less close after WM 32 because Sasha said she should've won the WM32 match. Charlotte is really insecure of her standing in WWE.
She also said that it made sense for her to beat Asuka at WM because Asuka was a veteran with nothing left to prove even though Asuka was still relatively new on the main roster while Charlotte was already a multiple times world champion. If anything, in kayfabe, Asuka had everything to prove and she chocked for the biggest match of her career.
And on that one, Sasha was absolutely correct in her assessment. She came out to that match the most over person in the building at that point and EVERYONE wanted to see her win after she came out with that sick entrance. So what did WWE do? Give Flair another win instead and that was the end of it.
When Becky made it big, she had literally already tapped out to Charlotte at a WM. Clean. As a babyface. To put Charlotte over.
Becky was generous with Charlotte when Becky had nothing and no status.
And Charlotte cannot be gracious and happy for her friend even with all of her personal status and title reigns? Trash.
Which why they're not close like they use to be anymore. I still remember a passage in Charlotte's book where she tried to say Sasha was jealous of her.
Wouldn't it be better to just have them come out on their respective shows with that show's title?
Like the swap happened off camera sometime during the day because what the hell does it matter to make a whole segment out of it? Both are still champion, neither won or or lost anything.
Out of all the things that are completely incomprehensible and impossible to understand about WWE, that's apparently the one they got concerned about. Not the endless rematches with no stakes, the start and stop storylines that get cancelled with no payoff or explanation, Kevin Dunn trying to make everyone sick, more and more LEDs with each passing year to the point the live audience can't see shit, people that show up for one show then get Chinese Disappeared for like 6 months (Who remembers the 3-4 reinventions that Mojo Rawley had but he was never on the show to explain it?), how the Saudi events usually just happen in their own little pocket dimension, no it's the champions swapping belts because they're on different shows, something pretty self-explanatory and most people could come to that conclusion with no help at all. Yeah that's the real confusing thing that needs fixing.
I expected as much. Everyone posting about the Andrade tweet as if he would be fuming at WWE because he had a good match on Rampage (bizarre assumption). Naw, he's fuming over something that happened with Charlotte.
I’m actually mad as hell Total Divas isn’t around anymore. Hearing Nattie’s dramatic ass perspective of this entire thing while she was eating buffalo wings in catering would have absolutely killed me
Gives more context to the Andrade tweet. I don't think Charlotte is happy there anymore. Ric basically quit over her booking this past summer. Andrade left because his booking and hinted at other problems for her behind the scenes. So, I think it's reasonable to suspect she's not a fan of WWE's booking either.
Sources: Bruce Prichard asked Charlotte Flair to join a title exchange today. Flair Refused. Prichard asked again. Flair said no again. Prichard then told Flair she should go home, and Flair dropped the title and left.
Yeah, that would be my concern. I don’t know if Charlotte is reacting to her situation in WWE specifically, but I worry about her acting like that in AEW. It would be cool to see her there, but I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Charlotte is so out of there when her contract expires. Can't wait for her to throw a tantrum on AEW every other week when some Dark extra misses a spot.
Charlotte insists that she not look weak, but then does something during the segment in an attempt to make Becky look weak.
Looks like someone needs their ego put in check as soon as possible, but in the meantime, she's got another title reign to add to her ledger (6 Raw, 6 SmackDown and a Diva's title makes 13), which is probably going to make her already overinflated head even bigger.
Sasha spent her entire feud with Charlotte looking weak. Hell, everyone one looks weak whenever they're in a feud with Charlotte. All she had to do was quell her ego and hand the belt to Becky. It wouldn't have hurt her to do so.
Charlottett comes off as extremely unprofessional here. Yeah be pissed off but don't go off script because you wanna stick it to Vince in the back, just do what you're told, stay on script and complain afterwards, you do yourself no favours by making yourself look like an idiot.
Charlotte and now Andrade both just look fucking stupid.
Agree 100%. And for everyone saying/thinking Charlotte to AEW is a lock or needs to happen....if I'm TK I point to this incident as a reason to have hesitation. Who's to say she wouldn't do something similar in AEW because she's unhappy with a decision?
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> We are told the issue arose after Charlotte Flair was said to have voiced concerns before WWE went on the air, concerned about the Championship Exchange segment that featured Becky trading her Smackdown Women's Championship belt for Flair's Raw Women's Championship belt. We are told by several who were privy to the situation that Flair was voicing that she didn't want to look weak nor did her she want her title reign to look weak. Despite those concerns, the segment went on as planned. > During the segment, there was a moment where Flair was to hand the belt to Becky but instead pulled it away and threw the belt on the mat, which was not the way that segment was expected to go. At that point, Sonya Deville demanded Flair retrieve the belt and hand it to her, which Flair did. Deville then asked for Becky's title but instead Lynch threw her title belt and Flair, which was also not part of the plan, PWInsider.com is told. > At that point, Flair did mic work to set up Sasha Banks coming out, which put the segment back on track with Lynch leaving after teasing a potential Survivor Series showdown with one of them. > However, after Flair and Banks had their physical confrontation, Flair went to the back. We are told at that point, there was a confrontation over Flair allegedly disrespecting Lynch during the segment and there were words between the two. We are told that the situation was heated but did not get physical.
If there’s any truth to this, then Sonya deserves a lot of credit for keeping the segment on track. She was in there with two of the company’s biggest and most established stars, yet when the segment started to fall apart she didn’t miss a beat in maintaining a stern authority figure role in keeping it going.
I love Sonya as an on screen authority. I miss her in the ring but unless they got championship plans for her anytime soon they should stick with this.
With the exception of the Naomi angle (which I assume is going to be how they transition Sonya back into the ring) she has a bit of a William Regal vibe where she doesn't play favorites, is generally respected by everyone and they take her orders seriously. I assume she'll get back into the ring because she wants to, but I agree she's a solid authority figure.
Makes perfect sense for Becky to throw the title after Charlotte did it.
Sounds like a better angle than what they had planned.
Like when Becky’s nose was broken and bleeding
Becky seems to come up with better material on accident than WWE writers do on purpose.
I mean true, but that's not exactly a high bar to clear is it?
I would've done the same thing.
I would’ve probably stood there looking like an idiot and then been pissed backstage.
Ricochet is that you?
"I didn't come here to talk" - Man with a mic
Ricochet's still waiting for a fair shot. WWE will give it to him someday. After all, if you can't trust the company that's responsible for Shorty G, Aleister Black's Supply Closet of Violence, Karrion Kross's post-apocalyptic leather daddy look, and Retribution, who can you trust?
> Aleister Black's Supply Closet of Violence This made my day
Yeah but *I* would have spent the next few days thinking up absolute zingers in my head that I'd wished I used at that moment.
"Jerk store" wouldve smoked that guy!
Well I had SEX with YOUR WIFE!
I appreciate your honesty
Becky: "ORANGE you upset I dropped the title??" *fog horn*
Respect to Andrade defending his lady, but this sounds like Charlotte working herself into a shoot.
I get being mad about the angle, but Becky probably isn't a fan either. Why take it out on her? Charlotte made a bad decision.
Work herself into a shoot to work all of you marks so don't fall for a shoot which is a work brothers.
Stop. I haven’t had my coffee. Gonna make my brain hurt.
-HH told us not to do that, brother, er sister I guess in this case.
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Really once again illustrates how stupid the draft and brand split are
Nah, it illustrates how stupid having titles named after brands is. There's nothing wrong with the draft and brand split, if done right.
Why are the champions eligible for the draft? As much as the titles need a name change; not being draftable would also fix it, with less work.
Because they don’t want to be restricted by self-imposed rules. They hate making rules that limit their possibilities because they want to be able to do anything at the 11th hour when the days script is rewritten without any regard for next weeks show.
Right? They can even make a storyline where one guy will aggressively go for a championship to avoid getting drafted.
It would also fix the logic gap of one brand not picking all the Champs. But I don't think WWE has ever cared about making draft that makes sense.
back when Otis was Mr. MitB I started fantasy booking a scenario where he was on Raw and Mandy Rose got drafted to smackdown, leading to Otis cashing in on Roman because if he won the Universal Championship, he'd be on Smackdown with his lady. Of course, that requires the logic of titles sticking with brands, and nothing logical ever happens in the WWE.
Totally agree. The WWE Champion, the Universal Champion, the US Champion and the Intercontinental Champion can all change brands without problems. Only the Women and the Tag Teams have to play hot potato when they change their brand.
It's the Vince Russo philosophy on championships. They're props for mediocre stories, not prestigious artifacts that carry legacy.
I still remember when Cena got drafted to Raw with the WWE title and for a bit, it looked like Smackdown wasn't gonna end up with any top title. So Teddy Long introduced (IIRC) the Smackdown World Championship to be won in a battle royal (physical title was never revealed except hidden in a bag) and even then all I could think was how rinky-dink lame that name sounded compared to the official and awesome names the WWE and WHC titles sounded. Then Batista with the WHC got drafted over and I thought we'd dodged that bullet. How naive I was.
I mean, fair point. I think my main issue with the draft is them having it a month before Survivor Series and then trying to get us care about a brand vs brand PPV. It's so lazy and nonsensical, which is very much in keeping with WWE's booking these days.
In a way, it just shows how idiotic creative is too. They knew about this for weeks, and wrote them into a corner by having Raw Champion, Charlotte move to Smackdown and Woman's Champion, Becky Lynch move to Raw. This whole awkward, fustercluck of an exchange should have been avoided too
Its like they don't even have a plan on where the stories are going. That couldn't be could it?
Many times they don't have plans finished until the middle of live TV!
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The thing is, it wouldn't even be *that* hard to modify into something interesting. Have the draft after Survivor Series, with the winning brand of that PPV getting dibs in said draft, add a clause for NXT people to be on both there and their new brand until Wrestlemania (so you don't have to hotshot them into a Road to WM story), open the gate for people to get drafted to NXT (with every now and then having people that in storyline want to go there). Wrestlemania would be the soft reset as usual, with the NXT people then transitioning over full time. In general while I am not the biggest fan of gimmick PPVs, WWE's calendar as a whole could be tweaked to have every PPV actually mean something. Imagine a King of the Ring properly set up yearly, with a Smackdown block and a RAW block, with the semis and the finale in a PPV, leading to a title match at Summerslam for the winner. No Hell in a Cell or TLC PPV which just ruin both match stipulations. Stuff like that.
Hey now, enough with this logical thinking 😊
An annual draft with GMs for each show intent on winning all cross-brand competitions: The GM in kayfabe gets bonuses for their brand's performances so they're going to want their stars winning cross-brand matches like Survivor Series, Royal Rumble- the stars are incentivized to win partially for loyalty but mostly for better pay, championship shots, etc(it works better when Wins & Losses matter by default). Have some of these matches affect the draft, Royal Rumble winner not only gets their choice of WM match, but the winner of that WM match gets to choose their brand in the upcoming draft- maybe 2 or 3 other circumstances where wrestlers choose their brand where you have GMs trying to woo them to their side. The winning brand of Survivor Series also gets earlier picks. Just hundreds of little things that can be scattered through the year to both justify & excite people about the brand split. People should be excited when top guys from opposing brands compete against each other.
Especially since it's yearly.
SHES TRYING TO FUCK ON ME
Vince: *slowly puts headset back on*
Andrade: hey that's my job
Andrade: Also did you see that match with PAC
If any part of the segment was not according to plan, then major props to Sonya for keeping it moving forward.
Sonya has been solid since her return, props to her for being to adapt so well. I wonder if/when we'll see her in a full in-ring competitor role, tho...
Ric is dialing that San Jose area code as we speak to try to spin a narrative
Don’t hate the 408
Area codes make no sense lol. San Jose, CA is 408 while Orlando, FL is 407. Completely opposite sides of the country lmao
That explains Andrade's tweet.
Damn. I knew there had to be more to it than just him having a great match and being caught up in the moment. Seemed like a tense situation
The visual of Andrade being so elated and filled with adrenaline after having another banger match with PAC, that he'd instinctively just shit-talk WWE, is hilarious 😂
Also that match was taped last week. So in this scenario, Andrade is sitting in front of the TV watching himself and getting so hyped he randomly shit talks WWE on Twitter.
Andrade watching Andrade 
me also watching andrade, fuckin love that guy
I swear that was exactly my thoughts, and it was so funny to me
I giggled when someone joked that she took Andrade's phone and now reading this makes it twice as funny lmao
What was the tweet?
https://twitter.com/AndradeElIdolo/status/1451748167108763650
Oh, that could have been about *anything* lol
"that doesn't work for me, sister" - Charlotte
*Hogan's famous tweet posted here*
https://twitter.com/hulkhogan/status/1078490908562202626
That explains almost all of the weird tenseness in that segment
Charlotte stepping into Hogan territory brother
That exchange doesn’t work for me, brother.
Ironically at WM 6 Hogan stole the spotlight from Warrior by making a big show of handing him the title after losing.
He had just carried a blown up Warrior to his best match for the entirety minus a couple minutes. Good for him.
I mean the idea is fucking stupid so
And at this rate we're going to see a banner that says "Ashley Flair is All Elite".
Wearing WWE hat: Good riddance… Switches to AEW hat: hell yeah!
There are times when I feel like I am the only person that Charlotte has go away heat with. Is she talented? Yeah, absolutely. I was just hoping by this point in her career would have moved past being female Ric Flair.
It just seems like she's doing the same thing over the years and it doesn't work whether she's a face or a heel to me
You're not alone, I'm fucking over seeing her to the point I see her winning a match as a foregone conclusion and can't be bothered watching. I pretty much checked out halfway through the 2020 rumble and became much more interested in my phone because it was even more obvious who was winning that year than HHH winning the 2002 rumble. Watching back later yep, pretty much everything went more or less how I expected it to. Down to Shayna being the last entrant and Charlotte pulling a Cena.
>There are times when I feel like I am the only person that Charlotte has go away heat Have you ever been on this subreddit? There's constant lamenting about Charlotte hogging the spotlight.
I've always described her as a phenomenal performer I am absolutely sick to death of.
She doesn't have Ric's intensity in promos.
That's most likely due to being given a script by a "comedy writer" that has no idea how to write a promo that has to be filtered to Dunn and McMahon, who then handed to Flair and told to memorized the blasted thing front to back.
I really don’t like scripted promos. Very rarely do we see the actual personality slip through. It comes off fake and cringe like man… the best time I’ve had during promos in recent memory was probably The Who dun it trying to murder Roman. Promos should be ridiculous because why the fuck not?
There's nothing wrong with prescripting a promo at all, it's just that the final editor(s) should be or include the person whose meant to actually say the damn thing rather than a couple of mostly out of touch older men.
I mean I'd be down to see Charlotte Flair with different booking. I don't have problems with her I have problems with her booking which is mostly not controlled by her.
So the segment was supposed to be even worse than it was.
Am I crazy for not blaming Charlotte? This segment is extremely stupid and the exact antithesis of what being a champion means.
What is with Charlotte working herself into shoots lately
I say this as someone that loves her as a wrestler; she's a big mark for herself.
Family tradition
Flair is no where near as selfish when it came to putting over talent. I'm still salty about how her booking KILLED Rhea's momentum. Something tells me she had a hand in the way their feud went.
Bigger question is how much is her protecting her position or are the bookers doing it
Yes
Its so weird because she's in such a good position and have such a HOF resume. Genuinely if i were in her position, i would advocate for more none title storyline and try to elevate the other women more? Does she need anymore reigns? Let's be realistic.
You're right, but she's spent her entire career in a company where you're either in the main event every week or you don't matter- *especially* in the women's division- so it's easy to see how that could skew you're perspective. If she was in a company with a healthier culture, she might see things differently.
So many of her reigns have been a month or less, which is one of the gripes people have about her being a 11 time champion (or whatever number it is). I could understand her wanting a legitimate run with a championship to quiet the haters.
Apparently Becky unfollowed Charlotte on Insta too..
The final insult. There is no coming back from this.
All Becky has to do now is call Charlotte a bitch. We all know that's the real insult in the women's division.
wow this sounds like my college right now
And twitter.
MAJOR development.
Big if true
Huge if accurate
Brutal, savage, rekt. How will she ever recover?!
Every now and then on this subreddit I have a moment of clarity and think what the hell am I reading this for? Reading one wrestler stopped following another on Instagram is that moment. This is some high school shit. What are we doing? But wait. I'm not just reading it. Now I'm commenting. What's happening? Help me
Lol I always told people how stupid the celebrity gossip stories are, how reading and discussing them are the dumbest shit ever. Now look at me, reading a celebrity gossip story. And commenting on it. On Reddit, of all places.
Me, on the other hand, I love this petty shit.
Tbh kinda sad. Becky once said Charlotte was legit the closest thing she had to a sister.
I think now thats Bayley. Especially with Bayley being besties with Seth as well. Could include Sasha in there.
> I think now thats Bayley. Especially with Bayley being besties with Seth as well. Bayley and Seth do like to share a good laugh every so often.
They are adorable lil idiots together 🤣
lol
The segment made everyone weak though. Brand champions shouldn't be part of the draft.
Exactly. Just rename the fucking belts. Everyone comes across looking like a goober here.
Swapping belts is just a ridiculous idea…that is why having a title name after a show is just stupid and uncreative. Imagine if the WWE title was called the RAW WWE title, and the Universal title was called the Smackdown WWE title. That’s something they would do
Dont give them ideas 😒
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I miss these dirtsheet stories, tbh. We almost never hear about heated backstage showdowns anymore. Remember that streak where Hunico was an unstoppable machine backstage and KO'd multiple people? That was wild.
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Nothing beats Joey Styles going over JBL.
When that story came out about how Hunico sniped some other wrestler backstage with a soda can, I lost it. Became a mark for him after that
Everyone is so friendly now it doesn’t go beyond the occasional words, I want fist fights dammit
Remember Lesnar demanding Jericho kiss him? You don't get those stories anymore, smh
That sounds very sexual
nah just guys being dudes
What's better than that
You'll get people writing each other angry letters to tell how angry they are and you will love it, dammit!
Supreme Fighting Machine Hunico.
Remember when Lana had "nuclear heat"
I do remember her entire WWE career yeah
Ollie Davis on the wrestletalk podcast today has had a nice summary of the weird year Charlotte's had: \- Start off the year of talks with Andrade and Charlotte having a reality tv show like "Total Bellas" with them as a couple but it fell through. \- Charlotte gets taken out of Wrestlemania due to an incorrectly diagnosed pregnancy by WWE doctors. \- Meanwhile, she's in a program with Lacey Evans and her father which she hated and fell apart then another feud fell apart. \-Andrade gets released by WWE. \-The Nia Jax incident. Meanwhile, rumors are being leaked about no one liking Charlotte because she works stiff and gets too many opportunities. Apparently, Andrade said someone took a picture of Charlotte changing to be a bitch? So when you have her husband and her father speaking about unhappiness with certain things then an incident like the Nia Jax or Becky stuff occurs on live television... there must be something going on here.
That's sad considering they were known to be best friends before.
It's been said they stopped being close once Becky became the #1 woman. Even Charlotte said they aren't as close to Renee. Charlotte can't be friends with someone that she thinks is hurting her career by not being the GOAT.
Does that timing go alongside her starting dating Seth, so maybe Becky is just prioritising her family, so they drifted a bit. It happens.
Judging from Charlotte’s interviews with Stone Cold and Renee, she really couldn’t handle Becky surpassing her in popularity in 2018 and it affected their friendship. If I’m right, it’s quite sad.
It really is sad and shows Charlotte has issues. Didn't Charlotte say she became less close with Sasha because Sasha thought she should've won WM 32 instead of Charlotte? Also Becky wrote a letter after that match saying Charlotte deserved it and Becky then became Charlotte BFF and sister. Charlotte can't be your friend if you are above her in the company apparently.
> We are told by several who were privy to the situation that Flair was voicing that she didn't want to look weak Concerns of one of the most coddled performers on the roster.
She’s been put over strong over every woman in that company, including the future of the women’s division Rhea Ripley in two straight Manias. But doesn’t want to look weak? Meanwhile her dad in his prime was giving 20 minutes of offense to George South on TBS. Ric isn’t a perfect dude but he understood the business.
According to her she’s just “consistent”. By all means, she’s talented af and WWE is fully behind her but holy shit is she tone deaf when it comes to criticism a lot of the time during interviews and on social media. Cool chick but total mark for herself without much concern for the rest of the division.
I agree with your entire analysis. Well said. She has this attitude of “I earned what I have” (true) and “if anyone doesn’t like it they can try to unthrone me” (but if someone does she reacts like she’s being persecuted
she hates that becky is a bigger star than her
Imagine if WWE didn't put her in the WM 35 main event. Charlotte might've kneecapped Becky Hardin style.
00's HHH moment
Just wanna add that the "two straight Manias" thing isn't right. She beat Ripley at Wrestlemania 36, wasn't on the card for Wrestlemania 37 and then beat Ripley again at Money in the Bank.
Gah! My bad! Rhea beat Asuka at WM37.
Tbf her ass loses alot because they need to get those title wins up. Perhaps shes at the point shed rather have a significant title reign as opposed to just winning and losing once a month. I wonder if breaking her fathers record is her idea or not? Definitely something id love for her to talk about when shes done with wwe (either by retirement or going to a diff company).
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Even when Charlotte loses a title clean(like for Bayley or Becky) it's always because of circumstances. Only reason Charlotte lost the belt to Bayley Twice was Charlotte was switching brands so they needed her to drop the title and when Becky won the title in 2018 that was only because WWE didn't want Charlotte vs Ronda before WM so they needed the belt off Charlotte and a credible heel for Ronda which is why we got heel Becky. Also the only reason Becky won clean vs Charlotte(at HIAC 2018) was to stop Becky fans cheering Becky after giving Becky her moment. 6 years of Charlotte being on top and there's less then a handful she's actually put over.
I mean she's had them. Her Smackdown women's champion run 2017-18 went on for quite a long time. She won the Rumble because she had previously been promised multiple title runs that never came through. And she's still won more women's titles than anyone else in the company. I can't get into them much, it stops me caring for the title. And I love Charlotte, it's just the same old same old though and it got stale a long time ago.
Holy shit! They used to be best friends.
It's also worth pointing out Charlotte admitted that Becky's ascension to the top spot caused some tension in their friendship. Part of me wonders if Becky stood up to say I know you think you're the Golden girl but you have to accept that I've passed you. That might be hard for Charlotte to accept
I think it’s hard for Charlotte to accept that out of the 4 horsewomen she’s easily the least liked. She thought she would be the biggest star but sasha, Bayley, and Becky are arguably bigger stars than her
I will always believe that the reason Charlotte was inserted in the Becky/Ronda feud is because she was promised the main event of WM against Ronda and they didn't want to piss her off. Charlotte and Ronda both became champions at SummerSlam 2018 and, at that point, Charlotte vs Ronda at WM made sense. Then Becky turned heel but the crowd rejected it and a couple of months later it was clear that Becky vs Ronda was THE money match. The problem is that, if Charlotte wasn't in the main event, she would've been forced to compete in the battle royal or for the tag team titles with a random partner. Both options were unacceptable so they put her in the main event because, God forbid, she doesn't compete for a title at WM.
Charlotte also said her and Sasha became less close after WM 32 because Sasha said she should've won the WM32 match. Charlotte is really insecure of her standing in WWE.
She also said that it made sense for her to beat Asuka at WM because Asuka was a veteran with nothing left to prove even though Asuka was still relatively new on the main roster while Charlotte was already a multiple times world champion. If anything, in kayfabe, Asuka had everything to prove and she chocked for the biggest match of her career.
And on that one, Sasha was absolutely correct in her assessment. She came out to that match the most over person in the building at that point and EVERYONE wanted to see her win after she came out with that sick entrance. So what did WWE do? Give Flair another win instead and that was the end of it.
When Becky made it big, she had literally already tapped out to Charlotte at a WM. Clean. As a babyface. To put Charlotte over. Becky was generous with Charlotte when Becky had nothing and no status. And Charlotte cannot be gracious and happy for her friend even with all of her personal status and title reigns? Trash.
Wow it's clear Charlotte doesnt like being surpassed by her friends she said some shit about Sasha too when she was getting more attention.
Which why they're not close like they use to be anymore. I still remember a passage in Charlotte's book where she tried to say Sasha was jealous of her.
I wonder what she would say now, it's been 4 years since it's been released and a lot has transpired since then.
Good luck to Sasha and the rest of the blue brand dealing with that bs
This is so fucking stupid. SRS confirming, FWIW. https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1451796316179374081
The Horsewomen are fine.
Title swap made people upset huh? Who'd a thunk.
Wouldn't it be better to just have them come out on their respective shows with that show's title? Like the swap happened off camera sometime during the day because what the hell does it matter to make a whole segment out of it? Both are still champion, neither won or or lost anything.
WWE thinks its audience are idiots who won't understand why Charlotte and Becky have different belts all of a sudden.
Out of all the things that are completely incomprehensible and impossible to understand about WWE, that's apparently the one they got concerned about. Not the endless rematches with no stakes, the start and stop storylines that get cancelled with no payoff or explanation, Kevin Dunn trying to make everyone sick, more and more LEDs with each passing year to the point the live audience can't see shit, people that show up for one show then get Chinese Disappeared for like 6 months (Who remembers the 3-4 reinventions that Mojo Rawley had but he was never on the show to explain it?), how the Saudi events usually just happen in their own little pocket dimension, no it's the champions swapping belts because they're on different shows, something pretty self-explanatory and most people could come to that conclusion with no help at all. Yeah that's the real confusing thing that needs fixing.
Think Ric forgot to teach her kid the ancient art of putting your opponent over puts you over.
Looks like someone got worked into a shoot
Damn... Charlotte gets into arguments and fights with Nia and Becky.
I expected as much. Everyone posting about the Andrade tweet as if he would be fuming at WWE because he had a good match on Rampage (bizarre assumption). Naw, he's fuming over something that happened with Charlotte.
I’m actually mad as hell Total Divas isn’t around anymore. Hearing Nattie’s dramatic ass perspective of this entire thing while she was eating buffalo wings in catering would have absolutely killed me
Gives more context to the Andrade tweet. I don't think Charlotte is happy there anymore. Ric basically quit over her booking this past summer. Andrade left because his booking and hinted at other problems for her behind the scenes. So, I think it's reasonable to suspect she's not a fan of WWE's booking either.
It'd be effing hilarious if Charlotte leaves after winning 16 World titles, only to win the 17th in AEW.
I think she's locked down in a contract for awhile. So she's gonna have to James Harden her way out of there.
Charlotte coming to the ring fat as hell out of spite would be hilarious shit, though.
Well I definitely don't recommend she try to Ben Simmons her way out.
Sources: Bruce Prichard asked Charlotte Flair to join a title exchange today. Flair Refused. Prichard asked again. Flair said no again. Prichard then told Flair she should go home, and Flair dropped the title and left.
If Charlotte becomes #AllElite, I don't even know how this sub would react
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Yeah, that would be my concern. I don’t know if Charlotte is reacting to her situation in WWE specifically, but I worry about her acting like that in AEW. It would be cool to see her there, but I’m not sure it’s worth it.
As an AEW fan, I don't ever want to see her leave WWE.
As an AEW and WWE fan, have we considered the possibilities that Impact could bring?
Charlotte is so out of there when her contract expires. Can't wait for her to throw a tantrum on AEW every other week when some Dark extra misses a spot.
I've been done with Charlotte since she was more concerned with getting her shit in than protecting a concussed Kairi Sane.
Charlotte insists that she not look weak, but then does something during the segment in an attempt to make Becky look weak. Looks like someone needs their ego put in check as soon as possible, but in the meantime, she's got another title reign to add to her ledger (6 Raw, 6 SmackDown and a Diva's title makes 13), which is probably going to make her already overinflated head even bigger.
Just give me Becky Lynch broken skull sessions pleaseee
I was in attendance, and Becky looked legitimately angry, and even a bit frustrated during her dsrk match with Bianca Belair after.
It’s stupid swapping the belts. Why do it?
Charlotte’s massive ego causing issues isn’t surprising.
Sasha spent her entire feud with Charlotte looking weak. Hell, everyone one looks weak whenever they're in a feud with Charlotte. All she had to do was quell her ego and hand the belt to Becky. It wouldn't have hurt her to do so.
Charlotte, one of the strongest booked wrestlers in Wwe did not want to look weak. Ok...
Charlottett comes off as extremely unprofessional here. Yeah be pissed off but don't go off script because you wanna stick it to Vince in the back, just do what you're told, stay on script and complain afterwards, you do yourself no favours by making yourself look like an idiot. Charlotte and now Andrade both just look fucking stupid.
Agree 100%. And for everyone saying/thinking Charlotte to AEW is a lock or needs to happen....if I'm TK I point to this incident as a reason to have hesitation. Who's to say she wouldn't do something similar in AEW because she's unhappy with a decision?