RIShane
-
Posts
493 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by RIShane
-
-
35 minutes ago, DMJ said:
Obviously Charlotte has been protected for a long time, but...
I do think Vince, HHH, and Steph believed Ronda Rousey was going to be around for more than one year, that they'd be able to broker a deal that would've seen her compete at WrestleMania this year. When this didn't happen, they opted not to run Charlotte/Becky again (maybe it was just obvious or too "been there done that") so it kinda makes sense that they reasoned, "Well, let's take our two biggest women's stars - Becky and Charlotte - and put them against the two biggest 'future stars' (aka the two top females from NXT)." Personally, I think there were better options on the actual main roster, but that's a different topic. The point is: Rousey left and Charlotte's stock goes up.
More recently, Becky Lynch is also gone now. So, if you're looking at your depth chart, at a time when I believe the WWE projected they'd have Becky and potentially even Rousey (maybe to build the much-rumoured Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen match for SummerSlam), they now have neither. That means Charlotte is being depended on even more.
Less recently, Sasha Banks taking a 4-month hiatus probably means she'll never get another top run and I'm not sure Vince has ever "got" Bayley. Again, Charlotte's stock rose when Banks left.
I don't think Vince sees foreign talent, even Asuka, as ever being the "face of the company." Its only recently I feel like he's been willing to push European/British wrestlers.To me, though, the issue isn't so much the overexposure or over-pushing of Charlotte, its that, despite infinite hours of TV time and a bevy of talent, they've let other talent die on the vine. Some talents got a small push then were dropped soon after (Ember Moon, Ruby Riott), others haven't ever been treated as legit "serious" contenders despite showing improvement over the years (Liv Morgan, Carmella), and some have been delegated into tag work but because WWE Creative stinks, they're inexplicably kept away from the singles title picture despite there being interesting angles they could explore there (Bliss and Cross, Kairi Sane).
TLDR: Blame Creative for not pushing other talent, not Charlotte for being a star.
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.
-
1
-
1
-
-
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.
-
2
-
-
24 minutes ago, EVA said:
Didn’t watch the show, but am I seeing this correctly? Charlotte wins the NXT title by beating Rhea...then loses the title because Rhea got beat? LOL WUT
So, presumably, Charlotte is now heading back to the main roster, not only having not helped NXT’s ratings or prestige one iota, but also putting over absolutely no one and killing off the brand’s red-hot female star in the process. Top-notch stuff.
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.
-
-
5 minutes ago, nofuture said:
Looks like the Brand is dead.
The dream is over.
-
Thought that was a pretty outstanding episode. Consistently strong matches and engaging storytelling with plenty of fun moments throughout.
-
1
-
1
-
-
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:
-
1
-
-
48 minutes ago, Peck said:
Watching Billie slap Peyton made me feel like I slapped my own mother. Please don't ever do that again.
If they break up, it’s going to be emotionally devastating.
-
4
-
-
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.
-
-
Thought tonight's episode was a lot of fun, and was a good mix of matches and character-building. Raquel Gonzalez also stood out in the opening tag match, catching Tegan's crossbody well and hitting a nice finisher on Shotzi.
-
For being less than three minutes (WWE's YouTube upload includes nearly the entire thing), the Charlotte/Kayden match had some fun storytelling, highlighting again how well Charlotte has adapted to empty arena shows and how on-point her character work is in her current role as a a vicious and arrogant heel lording it over NXT. The match starts with her 'warming up' by grabbing the ropes and then rather going into a lockup, immediately proceeding to boot Kayden in the face and calling back to the Rhea Wrestlemania match in her trash talk. She proceeds to start dismissively kicking Kayden in the head while berating her on needing to do her "homework", before dusting off her hands and then going for another boot before Kayden finally sees an opening and cuts her down as well as using the opportunity to give a superkick. Kayden takes the chance to do a crucifix and put Charlotte in an octopus hold but Charlotte powers out of it and launches her up into the top rope after throwing a couple of elbows. Charlotte levels her with a spear before finishing her earlier gesture by dusting her hands off once more. To be even more of a jerk, Charlotte gets her into the Figure 4, taunts Kayden into sitting up, and then slaps her right back down, berating her further. Kayden soon taps to the Figure 8, but Charlotte doesn't break it, and then to add one final humiliation, sarcastically applauds Kayden as she's writhing in pain.
-
1
-
-
23 minutes ago, Eivion said:
So was this the most women's matches on Raw ever? Dug them all to varying degrees.
Shayna just wanting to maim opponents is wonderful.
Really digging Charlotte as NXT champ. She feels more motivated than usual.
Dawkins and Ford were kind of annoying on commentary, but I dug Bianca's showcase against Santana.
Was going to skip Theory/Black, but ended up catching most of it because of Zelina on Commentary. Match was pretty solid and Zelina is always a joy to listen to. Its sort of weird to see her group all over Raw so much only to get destroyed by Drew twice in a row.
They’ve had gauntlets before but it’s the first time I recall them doing five separate women’s matches on one Raw, nice to see. Though I kinda wish they’d thought of this more vicious Shayna gimmick before Mania rather than afterwards.
-
1
-
-
Obviously there’s a cloud over things lately with today’s events and the ongoing uncertainty, but I thought it was a strong episode that showed NXT moving in some new directions, which is promising going forward. And it also didn’t have a 30+ minute Jake Hager match so it had that going for it too.
I like the idea of a Tegan/Shotzi alliance, Dream/Balor next week should be fun, and the Charlotte promo did a great job of presenting her as a final boss type in this run while hyping the division as a whole:
-
3
-
-
Some good analysis of Charlotte/Rhea and it standing out by their making every move feel like a legitimate struggle rather than something more choreographed. I’ve noticed this quality before in Charlotte’s work with Ronda and Asuka, but combining it with all that relentless limb work was masterful, and I did not know Rhea was so good at selling.
-
3
-
-
3 hours ago, Gonzo said:
If that's where they went with the Boneyard Match, I'm hoping for a full-on "Fear and Loathing" acid trip for the Firefly Funhouse match tomorrow.
Maybe Cena and the Fiend turning into puppets like something out of an episode of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
I wonder if they can top it.
I went into tonight thinking that Cena/Wyatt was going to be a standout. I went out thinking that they have a hell of a high bar to clear after that AJ/Undertaker madness.
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, PetrolCB said:
We could finally get a filmed version of he and Big Show riding motorcycles through Death Valley.
-
5
-
-
5 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:
I just watched this episode as background noise and it was pretty good.
Bayley and Sasha were great on commentary and their interactions with Tamina were fun.
Bryan vs. Nakamura and that whole thing with Sami Zayn at the end was good shit.. I'm loving this feud.
Everything with Otis and Mandy is pitch perfect so far..
The absurd Firefly Funhouse shit with Cena and Bray was done well.
Plus Ramblin’ Rabbit survived the segment! Historical.
-
It’s probably not going to catch on like Charlotte’s knee to Ronda on the go-home last year, but this camera angle is hilarious.
-
I thought this episode showed some encouraging signs for WWE adapting to this new format. Besides the camera angles, I thought choosing two fast-paced high-impact matches in Cena/Brock/Seth and Charlotte/Asuka was a much more effective use of archival footage than replaying the entire men's Rumble, even though that was a very good match in its own right.
-
1
-
Raw is Everyone Hates Charlotte - 6/8/2020
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
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’.