The Disappointing Side Of Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks

Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte in the main event of Raw to become the WWE Women’s Champion of Raw for the second time. The match was treated as a big deal. The pre-match video package gave you the impression that this was one of the greatest rivalries of all-time and that you were about to witness a historical event. There was emotion in the match, even if it was over-emotion. When Sasha won, while it wasn’t as significant as her first championship victory, it was presented as a monumental moment.

It all looked and sounded good. So why did I feel so indifferent?

I just don’t see the long term plan with the women on Raw. They have three talented wrestlers with no clear direction. Charlotte is the entitled brat, Sasha is the scrappy egotist, and Bayley is the underdog. It all seems fine, but there’s just something missing.

Maybe it’s Charlotte’s acting. Her promo skills leave a lot to be desired as she oftentimes feels lost and forced. She sounds like a type and speak robot from 15 years ago, badly in need of software update. Maybe it’s Sasha’s nonchalantness. Her character isn’t someone you can exactly root for. She believes that she’s the boss and she’s going to make everything legit and she bullies Dana Brooke and she fakes her retirement. Maybe it’s Bayley’s underdevelopment. She’s a shell of her NXT character, an awkward girl who just sort of hangs around and trades wins and losses with no real story behind her.

But really, my biggest problem is that there’s no one else on the roster. They’re slowly trying to bring along Nia Jax. So slowly that she won some squash matches, had a quick feud with Alicia Fox, and hasn’t been heard from since. Dana Brooke is there as a puppet, but no one actually buys her as a title contender as she’s constantly berated and beat up by the other three with no revenge on the horizon. Emma(lina) is “premiering soon” but I’m not putting my faith in them actually doing anything important with her.

It’s been Sasha vs. Charlotte, with Bayley sprinkled in, for three months now and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight as they continue to trade the belt.

All of this truly highlights a big issue with the brand split: the lack of depth.

There’s no one below the top three women and they’ve done very little to establish anyone below them. There’s at least a clear direction on Smackdown, but they’ll soon run into the same depth issues that forces them to rehash the same feuds. Imagine if we had three strong female feuds and we knew that they meant something because winning means you get elevated and losing means you have to rebuild. Charlotte has lost, but she’s not going anywhere. Imagine if there was only one belt and we knew who the undisputed best is.

This isn’t a knock on the ladies. They have delivered some very good to great matches. They may steal the show at Hell in a Cell (although I hope they stay away from putting them in Hell in a Cell because it doesn’t really fit with the story and I’m very worried that one of them may get seriously injured given their willingness to take risks). They have both made it clear that the title and being the best means something to them. It’s simple and it works, even if there are speed bumps with the story.

After awhile, it doesn’t matter how good the matches are if it’s something we’ve all seen 100 times in the span of a few months. This isn’t Flair vs. Steamboat. These are good matches, but not classics, wrestling wasn’t this overexposed in 1989, they wrestled three times in just over three months and didn’t meet again for another five years. We’ve seen some combination of Charlotte/Bayley/Sasha at least 15 times since July.

Those three women are going to continue to tear the house down and give fans heart attacks as they risk their lives in the name of entertainment. And sooner or later, because we’re wrestling fans and we’re cynical, we’re going to grow tired of it and we’re going to wonder when we’re going to see something different. It’s already happened for people like me.