CHARLOTTE FLAIR & THE RAW WOMEN'S DIVISION
Killing may be an incredibly strong word sure but if you were to take a look at the Women's Division on RAW lately you would realize what a giant shitshow it has become. I believe that a large portion of this has to do with Charlotte Flair, now it may not be of her own doing because like I mentioned with the Wyatt Family article WWE is shit at booking, but her name and her family is essentially causing rifts in the RAW Women's Division for huge reasons.
Triple H is what's about best for business.........or so he says. While the man, I admit, is better than Vince at this point and has created NXT and fostered amazing new talent or brought quality talent from ROH, NJPW, TNA, etc. there is one thing that in my mind at least weighs on Triple H as someone who has input on the program.
Triple H loves Ric Flair.
Charlotte winning the title as much as she has and the win streaks that follow DO have a lot to do with that I believe. I don't necessarily believe that her winning is bad because it isn't she is an amazing heel and puts on amazing matches; it's just how she's handled as far as booking that is messing up the division right now as I see it.
Triple H is what's about best for business.........or so he says. While the man, I admit, is better than Vince at this point and has created NXT and fostered amazing new talent or brought quality talent from ROH, NJPW, TNA, etc. there is one thing that in my mind at least weighs on Triple H as someone who has input on the program.
Triple H loves Ric Flair.
Charlotte winning the title as much as she has and the win streaks that follow DO have a lot to do with that I believe. I don't necessarily believe that her winning is bad because it isn't she is an amazing heel and puts on amazing matches; it's just how she's handled as far as booking that is messing up the division right now as I see it.
The state of the RAW title always seems to be in flux, it's always going back and forth and when a title does that it loses a lot of importance and add to that, the only Raw Women's Champion to ever win the title on PPV is ever Charlotte Flair and you also can see predictable outcomes to matches. Title matches at PPV's are supposed to be relevant but when only ONE person ever wins those matches and match quality don't matter in the slightest. It's a combination of shit booking and a love of the Flair Dynasty.
Taking a look back at the RAW Women's Title history and it is as follows:
To give an idea just how much, I mentioned Sasha Banks has won the title 3x already, phenomenal and sounds great. Lets take away that she's always won on RAW, always loses on PPV (always to Charlotte), and now the big dagger and the difference between Charlotte and the others. In 4 reigns as champion, Charlotte has held the belt a total of 246 days, almost a full year whereas 3x champ Sasha Banks a total of 76 days.
Taking a look back at the RAW Women's Title history and it is as follows:
- Charlotte won the inaugural title @ Wrestlemania 32 (PPV) and held onto it for 114 days
- Sasha Banks won the title on RAW and held it for 27 days
- Charlotte won the title back @ Summerslam (PPV) and held it for 44 days
- Sasha Banks won the title on RAW and held it for 28 days
- Charlotte won the title @ Hell In A Cell (PPV) and held it for 30 days
- Sasha Banks won the title on RAW and held it for 20 days
- Charlotte won the title @ Roadblock:End of the Line (PPV) and held it for 58 days
- Bayley won the title on RAW and is the current champion
To give an idea just how much, I mentioned Sasha Banks has won the title 3x already, phenomenal and sounds great. Lets take away that she's always won on RAW, always loses on PPV (always to Charlotte), and now the big dagger and the difference between Charlotte and the others. In 4 reigns as champion, Charlotte has held the belt a total of 246 days, almost a full year whereas 3x champ Sasha Banks a total of 76 days.
It MAYYYYY be a tad unfair of me to criticize Triple H's love of the "Nature Boy" being the reason Charlotte is booked this way but it does have to be a small part of it. That is what has led us to the disjointed mess on RAW. See because I don't miss PPV's but sometimes I don't catch RAW, I watch the highlights on YouTube, I want to see competitive matches where the outcome is unpredictable on PPV and while all the RAW women put on those amazing matches.......if it's a PPV = Charlotte wins.
Shit, Bayley just won and it was on RAW, I missed it.......and now we approach Fastlane and I KNOW CHARLOTTE IS GETTING IT BACK.......sure it may lead into a feel good, Wrestlemania moment for Bayley, and hopefully a longer reign. Yet again, the constant championship scramble just leaves the belt less to be desired and significantly less important. If it wasn't for those girls being as good as they are the division would've fallen by the wayside and the belt would have as much value to it as the United States Championship does.
Shit, Bayley just won and it was on RAW, I missed it.......and now we approach Fastlane and I KNOW CHARLOTTE IS GETTING IT BACK.......sure it may lead into a feel good, Wrestlemania moment for Bayley, and hopefully a longer reign. Yet again, the constant championship scramble just leaves the belt less to be desired and significantly less important. If it wasn't for those girls being as good as they are the division would've fallen by the wayside and the belt would have as much value to it as the United States Championship does.
The nonsense on RAW's side brings me to this...........
DID THE BRAND SPLIT HURT WOMEN'S WRESTLING IN WWE ??
A lot of people may say no as it created 2 different championships that more women are able to go after now, but that's not what I see to be honest. To be blunt, the brand split hurt the company in general just like the last time. I see it, I feel it, but it's not there yet for them to realize it. I could make that another topic, probably will. Yet, let's dial it back to JUST the women and the brand split.
Going into Wrestlemania 32, you had what was hailed as the "Diva's Revolution" (I still hate that name but whatever they wanna name it that's fine). You finally had other women from NXT show up to help the only progressive female wrestler on the main roster at the time: Paige. NXT gave up Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch and brought women like Naomi & Tamina forward into the spotlight again because everyone was SICK TO DEATH of Nikki Bella. Nikki Bella was an awful wrestler, terrible talker, she was a pretty face, one of the girls hired as a "diva" back in the day with her sister. AJ Lee was married to CM Punk, the WWE didn't like CM Punk and AJ Lee retired to be with him but she held the record as the longest reigning Diva's Champion. Nikki Bella is John Cena's girlfriend, the golden boy, so instead of a progressive champion like Paige she was chosen to be the one to break AJ's record.
And she did..........but people hated her............which is when they pulled the trigger and started the "Diva's Revolution". The new women added so much to the roster and women's wrestling was as good or better than the guys stuff at the time. Charlotte dethroned Nikki she was injured shortly after. Finally WWE dropped the "diva" name and decided to go with Women's Division and the WWE Women's Title was unveiled at Wrestlemania 32 and took place in a match between Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch (Charlotte won, surprise). It was not even a month or two after that, the brands split and Charlotte was sent to RAW.....along with the Women's Championship. It seemed like SmackDown Live needed a title now because the Women's Title wasn't going to be shared, so they had a multi-woman match at Backlash to crown the first SmackDown Woman's Champ
DID THE BRAND SPLIT HURT WOMEN'S WRESTLING IN WWE ??
A lot of people may say no as it created 2 different championships that more women are able to go after now, but that's not what I see to be honest. To be blunt, the brand split hurt the company in general just like the last time. I see it, I feel it, but it's not there yet for them to realize it. I could make that another topic, probably will. Yet, let's dial it back to JUST the women and the brand split.
Going into Wrestlemania 32, you had what was hailed as the "Diva's Revolution" (I still hate that name but whatever they wanna name it that's fine). You finally had other women from NXT show up to help the only progressive female wrestler on the main roster at the time: Paige. NXT gave up Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch and brought women like Naomi & Tamina forward into the spotlight again because everyone was SICK TO DEATH of Nikki Bella. Nikki Bella was an awful wrestler, terrible talker, she was a pretty face, one of the girls hired as a "diva" back in the day with her sister. AJ Lee was married to CM Punk, the WWE didn't like CM Punk and AJ Lee retired to be with him but she held the record as the longest reigning Diva's Champion. Nikki Bella is John Cena's girlfriend, the golden boy, so instead of a progressive champion like Paige she was chosen to be the one to break AJ's record.
And she did..........but people hated her............which is when they pulled the trigger and started the "Diva's Revolution". The new women added so much to the roster and women's wrestling was as good or better than the guys stuff at the time. Charlotte dethroned Nikki she was injured shortly after. Finally WWE dropped the "diva" name and decided to go with Women's Division and the WWE Women's Title was unveiled at Wrestlemania 32 and took place in a match between Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch (Charlotte won, surprise). It was not even a month or two after that, the brands split and Charlotte was sent to RAW.....along with the Women's Championship. It seemed like SmackDown Live needed a title now because the Women's Title wasn't going to be shared, so they had a multi-woman match at Backlash to crown the first SmackDown Woman's Champ
Okay, so the brands are split and there's two champions, for each brand now but the biggest problem was this. The Intercontinental Title and United States Title are midcard titles, the WWE and Universal titles are for the main eventers, and the RAW and SmackDown Tag Titles are for the tag teams. There is more than enough talent in those sections to cover those belts.
With the women's division in WWE finally taking off again and reaching a renaissance they decided to cut the roster in half, it's great to try and give more women chances at "the belt" but with a shaky at best division, one that is trying to take shape and is in it's infancy, you can't cripple it by splitting the entire roster of women. Sure, girls like Charlotte, Becky, Sasha, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Paige, those would've been the girls to go after the belt moreso but you'd be able to get great matches out of the other women too. Smaller divisions means if it's not a title match then the women's matches don't seem to matter, that's not something that should happen...........but it is.
I think the brand split was a shit idea in general but for the blossoming women's division it was a terrible idea, it just made the rosters too small, it made the matches less important, it just created issues and even though the women are having some matches better than any male counterpart in WWE right now the truth is their small divisions on RAW & SmackDown is really hurting the division.
I hope that they either somehow make each shows roster bigger by pulling up Asuka, Ember Moon, etc.from NXT or grabbing talent elsewhere to create more angles that aren't just title matches or that they just end this dumb brand split nonsense once and for all.
Brand splits have never been great for anything in the WWE and this was definitely not great for the women.
With the women's division in WWE finally taking off again and reaching a renaissance they decided to cut the roster in half, it's great to try and give more women chances at "the belt" but with a shaky at best division, one that is trying to take shape and is in it's infancy, you can't cripple it by splitting the entire roster of women. Sure, girls like Charlotte, Becky, Sasha, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Paige, those would've been the girls to go after the belt moreso but you'd be able to get great matches out of the other women too. Smaller divisions means if it's not a title match then the women's matches don't seem to matter, that's not something that should happen...........but it is.
I think the brand split was a shit idea in general but for the blossoming women's division it was a terrible idea, it just made the rosters too small, it made the matches less important, it just created issues and even though the women are having some matches better than any male counterpart in WWE right now the truth is their small divisions on RAW & SmackDown is really hurting the division.
I hope that they either somehow make each shows roster bigger by pulling up Asuka, Ember Moon, etc.from NXT or grabbing talent elsewhere to create more angles that aren't just title matches or that they just end this dumb brand split nonsense once and for all.
Brand splits have never been great for anything in the WWE and this was definitely not great for the women.