As a result, Becky suffered a concussion and broken face which created the iconic image of a crimson-faced Becky Lynch continuing to fight. Many have compared it to Stone Cold Steve Austin's iconic face while being trapped in the Sharpshooter from WrestleMania 13.
All of this led to Becky Lynch dubbing herself "The Man" and added a new layer to her already white-hot character. Even though Becky closed out 2018 without the SmackDown Live Women's Title, no one in WWE had a better year than 'The Man.'
Becky Lynch has carried over the Straight Fire into 2019 as she won the Women's Royal Rumble and challenged Ronda Rousey to set up the match we didn't get to see at Survivor Series on the grandest stage in all of wrestling, WrestleMania. Becky Lynch vs Ronda Rousey has been the best storyline in WWE since November and it's a feud that is worthy of becoming the first women's match to close a WrestleMania.
This past Monday the worst fear of a lot of wrestling fans was realized when Charlotte was inserted into the picture as Vince McMahon "suspended" Becky Lynch for 60 days which would force her to miss WrestleMania and named Charlotte Flair as her replacement. There is no way that Becky Lynch will not be a part of this match.
The match should have stayed a singles match between Becky and Ronda. I will now explain why inserting Charlotte creates a negative effect that hurts the entire women's division.
Weakens SmackDown Live Women's Roster Tremendously
The SmackDown Live women's roster was already extremely top heavy when it came to talent. In my opinion the top 3 women's wrestlers in WWE are on SmackDown Live: Asuka, Charlotte, and Becky. However, once you get past those 3 there is a major drop off in both talent and status. It was expected that after Becky lost the SmackDown Live Women's Title and failed to regain it that she would win the Women's Royal Rumble and challenge Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women's Title. This would mean Becky Lynch would be heading over to Raw which would be a blow to the SmackDown Live women's roster but all was not lost as SmackDown Live would still have Asuka and Charlotte to anchor the women's division on SmackDown Live.
With Charlotte's insertion into the Becky and Ronda feud this also takes Charlotte to Raw which severely weakens the SmackDown Live women's roster. If you're keeping score Raw with the new additions would currently have: Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Ruby Riott, Natalya, and Ember Moon. SmackDown Live would currently have: Asuka, Naomi, Mandy Rose, Sonya DeVille, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Lana, Carmella, and Zelina Vega.Which roster is capable of putting on the better matches? Granted Charlotte and Becky could appear on both shows but if they are going to be in a title match with the Raw Women's Champion, logic would dictate they spend more time on Raw.
A women's division with a lone standout but less than stellar contenders immediately puts a cap on the potential of your champion and this leads to my next point.
Asuka as SmackDown Live Women's Champ Has Been Made An Afterthought
Asuka won the SmackDown Live Women's Title in the first-ever women's TLC match in December. I felt this moment was long overdue for the best women's wrestler in WWE in my opinion. Asuka defended the title against "The Man" Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble in a great match that she won in a dominant fashion forcing Becky to tap out. Sadly, that was the last we've really seen or heard from Asuka outside of a couple of video packages. These packages have been overshadowed by Becky and Charlotte's interactions and Becky's interactions with the McMahon Family.
WWE's treatment and booking of Asuka in 2018 was their greatest failure in year that had a lot of booking fails. Asuka is the greatest and most dominant NXT Women's Champion in NXT's history and debuted on Raw with her undefeated record still intact. She remained undefeated, won the first-ever Women's Royal Rumble, and all of this was done for her to eventually tap out to Charlotte at WrestleMania for her first loss in WWE. This was followed by a series of losses to then champion Carmella. Even her winning the title wasn't the biggest story of that TLC match as that would go to Ronda Rousey pushing both Charlotte and Becky off the ladder. Asuka deserves to be featured and treated as the great talent she is and her reign as champion should be a dominant one.
The treatment of Asuka recently has made her and the title seem irrelevant. We know what Ronda Rousey is doing at WrestleMania but we have nothing to look forward to for Asuka at this point. The remedy to this would be having Charlotte focus on the Smackdown Live Women's Title and entering a feud with Asuka, who's undefeated streak she ended at WrestleMania last year. This would give Asuka a high profile feud as champion and allow her the opportunity to be featured in a prominent spot at WrestleMania. Without Charlotte, who challenges Asuka at WrestleMania that would garner excitement from hardcore and/or casual fans given the roster I listed previously for SmackDown Live?
Weakens the Women's Division Presence at WrestleMania
Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey is predicted by many to be the match that would main event WrestleMania. Asuka vs Charlotte 2 would make for a double main event that could further bolster the historic moment for women's wrestling and the women's revolution. Charlotte being added to the Becky-Ronda match does not add nearly as much value as the value that would be gained by having Charlotte and Asuka compete again with the roles reversed from last year's WrestleMania.
Without Charlotte, SmackDown Live will have to pit Asuka against Naomi, Carmella, Mandy Rose, or Sonya DeVille. Any of these matches aren't worthy of being included as a double main event and would probably end up being a cool down match in between two high profile matches or appearing on the extended kickoff show. This would not be the case if Charlotte challenged Asuka for the SmackDown Women's Title.
Shows How Little WWE Trusts Any Woman Not Named Charlotte Flair
Becky Lynch is the hottest wrestler in WWE and it happened organically with a lion's share of the credit going to Becky and not WWE. Ronda Rousey is one of the greatest female athletes in sports history, a mainstream star, and has had a Kurt Angle-esque first year in the wrestling business. Becky and Ronda started a feud that due to injury has not had a payoff in the form of a one-on-one match. It is one of the most highly anticipated matches in all WWE if not the most highly anticipated match in all of wrestling. However, WWE felt that this match needed Charlotte Flair.
If the combined forces of Becky's popularity with hardcore fans and Ronda's ability to bring in casual fans and the mainstream audience isn't enough to be able to have a major moment in WWE for women's wrestling without Charlotte being involved, what match or situation ever will for the women's division? This sends a terrible message to the rest of the women's locker room as it shows that they don't trust the rest of the women in any combination to be able to carry the ball as it pertains to a first-ever high profile moment.
Charlotte is a great wrestler, not disputing that one bit. But there are other talented women on the roster who deserve the opportunity to show and prove in these major moments. Charlotte was a participant in the triple threat match to crown a new Women's Champion when they phased out the Divas Title and won. She was a participant in the first-ever women's Hell in a Cell, a participant in the first-ever Last Woman Standing match, a participant in the first-ever Women's TLC match, and she was the woman who ended Asuka's lengthy undefeated streak. Charlotte's resume doesn't need another first on it.
Let Becky and Ronda have THEIR moment and trust that they will make the most of it. Charlotte is not needed to make this match bigger or build the storyline. For all the talk the McMahon Family has done centered around change, this move does not signal change at all.
Diminishes Becky's Accomplishment of Winning the Raw Women's Title
At this time last year the biggest match in the women's division and all of WWE was Charlotte Flair vs Asuka. It was a match-up between Charlotte Flair, who had already crafted a first-ballot hall of career, and Asuka, the undefeated phenom that had taken WWE by storm since she debuted in NXT. During the entire build up towards the match there was no discussion about adding Sasha Banks because Sasha could help with the building of the match on the microphone and allow Charlotte to have someone else to beat so Asuka still looks strong. No. They kept the match one-on-one because they didn't want any asterisks or caveats to Charlotte's victory in that match.
If Charlotte would've beaten Asuka in a triple threat match, Tom Phillips would have come on SmackDown Live and said Asuka has yet to lose a one-on-one match and this would take a little luster off of Charlotte's victory. WWE knew this and allowed Charlotte to beat Asuka clean and bolster her resume by becoming the woman who ended Asuka's undefeated streak.
WWE has already upset a large segment of their fan base by shoehorning Charlotte into a match she doesn't need to be in. I can't imagine they would be so foolish to also have Becky lose the match at WrestleMania. I am going to assume that the plan is for Becky to become Raw Women's Champ at WrestleMania in the first-ever women's match to close the show.
The same way Charlotte got to enjoy the full credit of ending Asuka's undefeated streak last year, Becky has earned the right and privilege of gaining the full credit for ending Rousey's undefeated streak in a singles match. Michael Cole shouldn't be able to come on Raw and say Ronda Rousey has yet to lose a one-on-one match. The narrative should be that "The Man" ended 'The Baddest Woman on the Planet's undefeated streak and is now the new Raw Women's Champion.
Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts? Are you happy or unhappy that Charlotte has been added to the match?
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