RIShane

I think WWE is trying to make fans forget that Asuka beat Becky clean because that slightly undermines Becky. The most telling moment for me was during the hype video last week when they left that match out entirely.

I think as a whole it was better than the famous Raw gauntlet match from last year. That had a very exciting first hour with Rollins/Roman and Rollins/Cena, but really died down over the second, when the excitement came from the sheer length of the match itself.

Oh yeah, and its wild that Kofi's the youngest entrant in that Elimination Chamber match.

It was top-notch heeling, and I think it helped highlight how its much much safer having someone like her who can control a hostile crowd in the heel role for this feud than Ronda (who clearly gets rattled by crowds who dislike her, which is understandable given her lack of experience) trying to play a face but being forced into a 'heel' role because Becky. Plus I loved her disingenuously 'dedicating' the Mania match to her friend, Becky., and she also did more to hype up Ronda/Ruby than that whole episode of Raw did. Gauntlet match was excellent too, though its a shame that Ali was hurt so he didn't get that opportunity for a real showcase. The RKO-outta-nowhere! ending was predictable but made me laugh.

I'm sure WWE will find someone. Just sucks that Ember got hurt, ,that would have been amazing.

This is the crux of it for me. Fans weren't hyped to see Becky and Ronda fight, they were hyped to see Becky beat Ronda. Adding Charlotte not only properly pays off the story they've been telling since November (especially the Survivor Series and TLC endings which strongly hinted at a three-way), but also adds that element of doubt that will make Becky's eventual win all the sweeter. And frankly, it'll make for a more interesting build than Becky smirking at every Ronda promo (hurt even more by the crowd rattling Ronda) and repeatedly 'owning' her on Twitter for the next two months. Like, that moment on Raw when they first confronted each other? Great, but it would have been very hard to keep up that energy the whole way, especially with WWE wanting to use Becky so heavily on both shows.

And Ronda pushed both her and Becky off the ladder at TLC. As much as some fans claim "its' Becky's time!", the story's been built as a three-way for some time now.

This build is going to be so much fun.

And after the match, Becky concludes her accelerated Austin arc by turning heel and aligning with Stephanie.

It works really well on a few levels. Ronda's been having trouble with getting rattled by hostile crowds, so now they have Charlotte as a heat magnet, which will help the feud keep up its energy over the next two months. Even in addition to her talent in ring and on the mic (and she's going to be going all out to get fans even more behind Becky), she does a heap of promotional work for the company and this will help the Mania build further. I was going to say the episode was lacking besides that great Revival match, but man, that was a perfect swerve ending. Obnoxious Wrestlemania Main-Eventer Charlotte is going to rule.

I think a key issue is that many smark fans love Becky because of the perception of her formerly being "held back" (in juxtaposition to the company's alleged 'female Roman', and helped by Becky's adept use of social media), it was a crucial factor that made them get behind her character otherwise being presented as an asshole. (There's a whole other issue about how sustainable this is given on all evidence, she's been booked extremely strong for more than six months now.) If you don't know the backstory, and indeed are a wrestling fan who doesn't care about smark narratives and rumours, then a big part of the character loses its resonance. Another concern I have about Becky's ability to connect to a bigger crowd and make new fans is that her promotional interviews tend to be so heavily kayfabed. It makes perfect sense for a crowd who's already familiar with her story, but is potentially offputting for those who are not, in a similar way that casuals don't expect actors to play their characters when they appear on talk shows.

Becky coming close to corpsing at Charlotte's over the top fake limping was a fun background moment, too.

Charlotte was a magnificent jerk of a heel in her few minutes before the HHH/Becky promo kicked in, mocking Becky's limp again, obnoxiously pointing at the Mania sign, and even bringing up my favourite cheap wrestling cliche 'suspended wrestler buys a ticket and shows up but its OK because they bought a ticket'. (though it is interesting that so far she's a heel even 'The Authority' hates, with HHH telling her to go away.) I also thought it was telling that they did a 2-minute 'Asuka destroys everyone' promo (her only appearance tonight after being left off entirely last week) but left out her tapping out Becky at the Rumble.

Why wait til Mania when you can do Becky/Steph in a cage at Elimination Chamber: St Valentine's Massacre 2.0!

https://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/wrestlemania-35/article/axxess For those curious, the Premium VIP and VIP listings are: Premium VIP sessions: · Thursday, April 4 8:00PM-10:00PM Charlotte Flair · Friday, April 5 6:00PM-8:00PM Ronda Rousey · Friday, April 5 8:00PM-10:00PM Shane McMahon · Saturday, April 6 8:00AM-10:00AM Seth Rollins · Saturday, April 6 10:00AM-12:00PM Becky Lynch · Monday, April 8 12:00PM-2:00PM AJ Styles VIP sessions: · Thursday, April 4 6:00PM-8:00PM The New Day · Friday, April 5 1:00PM-3:00PM Sasha Banks/ Bayley · Friday, April 5 3:00PM-5:00PM The Miz/ Maryse · Saturday, April 6 1:00PM-3:00PM Daniel Bryan · Saturday, April 6 3:00PM-5:00PM Braun Strowman · Saturday, April 6 6:00PM-8:00PM Asuka · Saturday, April 6 8:00PM-10:00PM NXT Champions (Men & Women) · Sunday, April 7 8:00AM-10:00AM Dean Ambrose

Weak episode, alas. At least that opening (complete with Becky using her "injured" knee to help with a judo toss at one point) made one person happy:

Wouldn't it be amazing if Joe got booking which backed up his amazing promo skills and swagger? I've made the comparison before, but its like how he and Becky are both great promos, but only Becky got booking which convinced fans they were right to believe everything she says because she could be seen as backing everything up, rather than Joe's style of great promos then losing the big match.

He had them chanting. Chanting for a fictional cow. That's talent.

I get why people make this analogy, but it ignores that Becky and Ronda are not The Rock and Austin. The Rock and Austin were by 2001 experienced PPV main-eventers who had already fought on the biggest stage, and were seasoned pros so there weren't any doubts about the match living up to the hype. Ronda is good but has also been a wrestler for a year, plus also has a tendency to get rattled by hostile crowds (and hostile crowds are what we're going to see any time Becky is involved), and Becky is definitely good but isn't the most athletic and has a relatively unexciting moveset, in addition to the fact we don't know what their ring chemistry is like while Charlotte has excellent chemistry with both and can pull off spots and take bumps that will help with that vaunted 'big fight feel'. I still think its absolutely the right decision to have Becky win the big one at Mania, but I do think Charlotte will be in the match to help ensure its a success and make it more memorable.

I enjoy Charlotte Flair as a face, but damn, she is awesome as a dick heel, right down to mocking Becky's "injury.": Plus they've been feuding for about six months now and crowds are still chanting LET THEM FIGHT, which speaks to how good they both are.

I completely understand that, but I also think that on one level Charlotte being there works because it means that fans will never get suspicious of Becky being "overpushed" if they have Charlotte to deflect any criticism and be paranoid about instead. Despite Becky being possibly the strongest booked person in the company for months (Ronda's lost no singles matches but has also had multiple segments of her getting beaten down by Nia/Bella Twins/Becky/Charlotte etc: while Becky usually stands tall even after losing), and getting what's basically SuperCena booking at this point (the Rumble, complete with her still winning easily enough despite already having had a match and a leg injury on top of that) many fans online are still genuinely fearful that Becky isn't really supported by the company, something she smartly plays into with all her rhetoric about not being "chosen", which makes them love and support Becky even more. While popular everywhere, there's a reason she gets her biggest reactions on post-PPV/Takeover shows in that unlike past faces of the company like Roman and Cena, its smarks who love her most. Meanwhile, fans still stubbornly see Charlotte as 'female Roman' even though when you look back she hasn't really won anything consequential in a long time and has basically done a whole lot of putting others over for the last year. Becky beat her up as soon as she won at Summerslam (and the title run itself was basically a transitional one like Alexa's after MITB), she got beaten up after the DQ 'win' at Super ShowDown, and after Mania 34 she dropped the belt two nights later to Carmella. But emotively, it doesn't feel like that's the case. Its a very interesting dynamic and I think WWE has exploited it very successfully.

My guess is that Stephanie gets involved when Charlotte airs her grievances about Becky 'illegally' winning the match. Stephanie's been very little used of late, and it feels natural that she'll play a heel role in the lead-in to Wrestlemania.