RIShane

If they did open with that match (I personally hope its later in the show and they open with something less important, but hey), a sensible strategy would be to have it run long so that the 30 minutes of streaming ends partway during the match.

The contrast between those segments was very telling. The Charlotte/Becky segment felt fresh, had careful writing (some of Charlotte's lines in her speech were taken from real interviews of hers to help blur the lines between fiction and reality), some really cool background details (like Sara looking on proudly, Rhea Ripley being bored by Charlotte, and the UFC Horsewomen being delighted to see their WWE counterparts brawling), and an exchange (Charlotte: Who are you? Becky: I'm the women's champion!) which spoke volumes as to where the characters are at this point of their long feud, with Charlotte still trying to deal with losing her best friend, while Becky is consumed by keeping the title and her desire to destroy Charlotte. The battle royal segment on the other hand? Utterly and bizarrely lazy, especially combined with the 75-second 'fatal four-way' match on Raw this week.

Paige being absent and Shane McMahon being around for several minutes is a bad sign going forward. Part of why SDL wasn't very good for much of 2017-18 was how much of the airtime got wasted on his storylines, storylines that were generally uninteresting and hurt everything else on the show by denying them the time they needed.

Fair point, but the SD match has a strong chance of being the longest match on the show.

Hmm, the X-Files pun in her accompanying tweet was far from her best work. Also, this brawl puts a whole new spin on the Charlotte Flair video WWE uploaded yesterday. No wonder Charlotte goes from smiling and proud to suddenly quiet when talking about the friendships she made in her time at the Performance Center.

This week's Hidden Gem is exciting: https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2018/10/18/exclusive-this-weeks-wwe-hidden-gems-update-revealed-event-previously-thought-to-be-lost-to-time/

I still think its a pretty good card, even if I get why people are critical. At least the battle royal has meaning due to the title shot stipulation, and its better to have fewer matches on a PPV card if it means that each match gets extra care and time, Hell in a Cell compared to the PPVs before it is a good example of this. (Based on how long they went on SDL last week and the Last Woman Standing stipulation, I'm suspecting Becky/Charlotte will be the longest on the card, but they could give good time to a few of the others, too.)

While it got the desired crowd response, I thought the Ronda promo needed some more original material, given how many other wrestlers (Carmella, Nattie, AJ Lee) have already pulled out the 'Nikki slept her way to the top' canard.

Bayley's positioning in things like posters and PR announcements has dropped dramatically in the last eighteen months.

Strong episode tonight, I thought. Bayley and Ember need to have a singles match, and the Fenomenal Flair/Fabulous Truth match had lots of charming goofiness. KO is out because of his knee injury so Nattie has a 'mystery partner' to go against Lashley/Mickie next week. SDL's match will be Ravishing Rusev Day/Awe-suka.

That was noticeable, and encouraging.

At least Ric still supports her:

25:12.

Becky/Charlotte is a Last Woman Standing match.

Pain, murder, its just a title shot away, its just a title shot away... Also, Becky/Charlotte was the longest women's singles match in Raw/SD history. (And then Charlotte still did MMC afterwards.)

I was thinking that if the oft-rumoured tag titles do happen, they could run something like Asuka/Naomi vs Nia/Ember.

I'm assuming the stipulation for Becky/Charlotte will be announced on SDL.

She also managed to make all three members of the Riott Squad tap out, in only two matches.

I agree in general, but Charlotte/Becky has gotten so much build that its been functioning as SDL's main-event programme of late.

Yes! I enjoyed Aiden's stalling in general, including his fun facts about Milwaukee.