One of the most confusing and frustrating decisions in WWE this year is the booking of Charlotte Flair as NXT women’s champion.
At WrestleMania 36 Charlotte Flair shocked the wrestling world by defeating Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women’s Championship. Fans widely criticized the decision to put the title on Flair as it derailed Ripley’s momentum, who was in the middle of a monster push at the time and overshadowed the NXT women’s division as a whole.
Many fans assumed that Charlotte became the NXT champion to boost ratings for the brand and elevate the women’s division and the title. However, when her reign failed to do this and she dropped the title without taking the pinfall it left many scratching their heads to find a reason why it all happened. It remains one of the most baffling periods in otherwise a stellar history for NXT women’s division.
According to Fightful Select, the reason for NXT’s frustrating booking of Charlotte was due to NXT’s creative plans being nixed by RAW’s. The report states that;
“When the NXT creative would come up with creative or plans for Charlotte Flair when she appeared on their brand, it would often need to go through RAW, but would get shot down.”
The report goes on to say that;
“Originally, Rhea Ripley was supposed to the (WrestleMania 36) match, then changed to Charlotte. There was a big push within NXT to have Bianca Belair added even sooner that she was to feud so that Charlotte could lose the match without taking the pin.”
The fact that Charlotte’s NXT run did little for her, Ripley or the brand/title certainly gives weight to the report and highlights the internal struggles and contradictions within WWE and NXT.
Not to end on a bad note, Flair’s title run did us Io Shirai as champion, so it wasn’t all bad, or was it?
What do you make of the report and Charlotte Flair’s NXT title run? Let us know in the comments below. As always stay tuned to Diva Dirt for all of your women’s wrestling news, reviews and updates.
