[2016-11-28-WWE-Raw] Charlotte Flair vs Sasha Banks (Falls Count Anywhere)

[Kadaveri]

There's a real feeling of contempt and anger in this match that is so badly lacking in modern WWE. Just little things like their facial expressions and their yells when they hit each other make it all feel like a vicious fight. I liked a Twitter take saying replace the kendo stick with a beer cooler and this feels like a lucha brawl. It's a shame the TV has such bad writing for the promo segments coz there's actually a coherent story being told in these matches of Charlotte fighting to force Sasha to respect her as a deserving champion, like actually pleading "Respect me... I'm the champ" to her. The only time this story element is ever touched on outside the matches is Charlotte's interview on the loosely scripted Raw Talk where she says she always wanted to be as good as Sasha.

But back to the match. You can tell both are working their alignments really well when a Charlotte NC crowd is cheering on Sasha so much. Charlotte has some pretty entertaining trolling of the crowd mocking their "COME ON SASHA!" shouts while she's ragdolling Sasha around the stage. There's this great strike exchange on the apron where they're mixing it up and taking irregular recovery times from each hit rather than just repeat bashing each other like the played out Frye-Takayama spot. Sasha takes a big boot and takes a cool bump off the apron to the stairs. Charlotte comes down but doesn't realise Sasha is getting up, and from under the ring she's pulled out a kendo stick!

Just watch Charlotte get kendo'ed to hell it's so cathartic. Note Charlotte's classic Flair begging off and the look on Sasha's face telling you she's unloading years of bottled up anger at Charlotte. One of the most rewarding babyface asskicking fire spots in WWE in years.

Really creative finish. Did not see that coming when I first watched the match even like 2 seconds beforehand, and from the look of the guy standing next to them he didn't either. Charlotte taps almost immediately. Thank God she didn't learn from Shawn Michaels.

Best of their series. ****1/2

[Zoo Enthusiast]

This is spectacular. Sasha is amazing in this match and it’s a great reminder of how terrific Charlotte’s act was at this time when she was a delusional heel champ desperate to keep her title. They just have great chemistry that gets me emotionally invested every time they are in a match together. The kendo stick portions are especially vicious. I can always do without stuff like Charlotte doing moonsaults off the announce table but the really non-sensical stuff like that is minimal here.