RIShane

I would suggest that people underestimate how much Becky presented her character in a way which targeted/exploited smark narratives about Charlotte, especially on social media. Even as a ‘heel’ she was strongly pushing the idea that she was ‘held back’ because she wasn’t blonde and a Flair, and that Charlotte was ‘handed everything’. While technically a heel, she dropped any attacks on fans after one promo, encouraged fans to boo Charlotte on social media (hence #boothewoo) and it led to the style of character she’s used since which blends face/heel elements while frequently weaponising smark narratives/language. Even if you take away how hard Charlotte put her over, I don’t think things would have worked as well if Becky had been against anyone else. The Nia punch was very important too, but a lot had already happened up to that point. Plus the ‘wrong alignment’ and smark paranoia about Charlotte’s booking made it seem cooler to cheer Becky on, and easier to give Becky a super push while avoiding the usual fan fears that Becky was a ‘chosen one’.

Honestly, for someone Vince ‘doesn’t get’, Bayley has been massively pushed since February 2019. In the last thirteen months she’s been SD Champion save for a five-day gap, and it’s telling that they had her cash in on Charlotte as a face and then had her beat Charlotte on SD to cement her heel turn back in October.

I understand why the booking gets people mad, but in terms of her performance Charlotte’s been on a hell of a run these last few months. Having that Takeover main event, and tonight’s main event as well as an entertaining tag match (she and Asuka are very funny as mismatched partners) within 24 hours says a lot.

I’m sure the women getting their first Takeover main event in five years was just a coincidence, too. ?

I kinda like the idea of Robert being fearful of losing any of his charges now that Chelsea abandoned him after winning one tag match, it could be a fun story. And that triple threat hype vid was pretty great—it would be nice if they main event on Sunday.

The dream is over.

Thought that was a pretty outstanding episode. Consistently strong matches and engaging storytelling with plenty of fun moments throughout.

Also, for a match that felt like it was going to be completely predictable, Charlotte/Nattie/Nia did very well at making their triple-threat feel genuinely in doubt.

They’re leaning into using Charlotte working multiple shows for heel heat:

If they break up, it’s going to be emotionally devastating.

Sasha turning on Bayley is long overdue (hopefully Dr Shelby and Kurt Angle leave them alone this time ?) and their segment with Charlotte (playing up their history and also leaning heavily into smark criticisms with her reasons why Fox wanted to bring her to SD) was a fun way to get that story finally moving;

Buddy counting down his own imminent demise was good fun, and Liv got a great showcase in her match with Charlotte.