Charlotte Flair

[Grimmas]

cubbymark said:

"A second generation star who happens to be Ric Flair’s daughter. Just because you are the offspring of a wrestling legend, doesn’t always mean all the natural talent transfers over. Just look at David Flair.

She is considered to be one of the WWE Horsewomen and is generally pushed very well. To me she’s probably the most underrated of the four. She might get some backlash from folks, but she can get in the ring and do very athletic and creative things. Charlotte is also a tremendous big match wrestler.

When she is a heel, she definitely exudes her daddy’s swagger and arrogance. She can be extremely vicious when necessary. "

[Grimmas]

Charlotte is really good and steps up her game in big situations. She gets a lot of shit due to her booking, but you can't hold that against her (well I can't).

An amazing athlete who gets vicious and is a joy to watch. Since I'm out of touch on WWE I'll have to rewatch some things, but I am never disappointed in a Charlotte match (outside of who wins).

[elliott]

The Hell in a Cell vs Sasha and the Falls COunt Anywhere vs Sasha are two of my all time favorite matches. Would love some more recent recommendations. 

[WingedEagle]

A few other greats if you haven't seen them:

Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Becky Lynch (NXT Takeover Rival 2/11/2015)

Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte (Iron Man Match, Roadblock: End of the Line 12/18/2016)

Charlotte vs. Bayley (WWE Raw 2/13/2017)

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (Last Woman Standing, Evolution 10/28/2018)

Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair (Survivor Series 11/18/2018)

Charlotte Flair vs. Trish  Stratus (Summerslam 8/11/2019)

Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley (WWE Wrestlemania 36 4/5/2020)

 

[Grimmas]

1 minute ago, elliott said:

The Hell in a Cell vs Sasha and the Falls COunt Anywhere vs Sasha are two of my all time favorite matches. Would love some more recent recommendations. 

vs Becky at Evolution (my fav show ever) in a Last Man Standing was insanely great!

vs Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series 2018 is a great intense brawl

vs Trish Stratus at SummerSlam 2019, biased because I was live and LOVE Trish, but a great current star vs legend match.

vs Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 36, the best match on the no crowd mania. They worked super stiff to make up for it. An impressive performance.

Let me know if you need more, I could go on.

[elliott]

Thanks yall! Great starting point! I never watch modern stuff anymore but I actually did watch WRestleMania 36 with my non-fan roommate and we both loved the Rhea Ripley match 

[DR Ackermann]

I've seen good Charlotte matches followed by matches where she looked completely lost in the ring. Too inconsistent for me to give serious consideration at this point, especially considering how many of her peers are more deserving and won't necessarily make my list. You could name a hundred current workers better than her right now. With that said, she's had some great matches.

[Boss Rock]

Unless she really turns it around in the next five years, no chance. To be fair, she's had some great matches. The whole Sasha feud is obviously terrific and the Asuka Mania 34 and Ronda Survivor Series matches are also great (the latter perhaps being the best Fed match of 2018). I liked the Evolution match against Becky well enough, but that felt like a typical WWE plunder match as opposed to the classic it was heralded as.

Besides those matches, she's usually mediocre to actively bad. Frequent timing issues and being out of place, terrible seller, and really bad execution. Her corkscrew moonsault looks great and that's it. She's athletic but very awkward and rigid. Sasha should've gotten her push.

[NotJayTabb]

Yeah, agree with Boss Rock's post above. She's always been the least of the Horsewomen for me, her instincts aren't as good and I don't think she's got the range of the others. While the other 3 all feel different to their NXT incarnations, she's pretty much stayed the same in terms of character and ability.

[Ed.]

I can't really hold it against her for her character not changing much - when WWE are only interested in presenting you as Charlotte Flair, daughter of Ric, it's hard to do a lot to change that up, and why would you want to change that if you're gonna get pushed regardless .  And as much as I love her work, does Sasha really change her character? She just changes her hair colour but is still The Boss like she was 6 years ago.  Asuka's character doesn't change for the better.  Bayley and Becky changed out of necessity because they were going nowhere as babyfaces.  It's not really a division where the women are constantly evolving and changing their act, so I don't see it as a specific criticism for Charlotte.

I'm not a fan of her booking though, she gets handed too much, she's almost always in the title mix and there's no sense of her ever having to struggle to achieve success.  She sucks as a babyface, and after 6-7 years of being on top, I'm not sure I'm thrilled about any more heel title runs from her.  

Her in-ring is inconsistent, but she is big match Charlotte.  There's not many of her big singles matches that don't deliver, and all the matches mentioned so far are very good at minimum.  I could watch a 3 hour network special or DVD of her best work and be thoroughly entertained, but week to week she can be frustrating and there can be bad performances.  TLC against Kairi and Asuka she was downright dangerous in the match.  

She has a shot of the top 100 on the merit of how many very good-great matches she could have come 2026, but I don't see her shaking off the negatives to her case.

[elliott]

I watched the Trish match and it sort of convinced me I don't need to spend much time on Charlotte compared to some of the other modern female candidates. 

I don't follow the modern product or the discussion around it well enough to know the rhetoric surrounding Charlotte, but my impression based on her NXT & first couple of main roster years was that she was a great natural athlete who didn't have the instincts or charisma of Sasha. She could easily become a great wrestler & star but it would be because of her natural athleticism and not necessarily her charisma. But in this match Charlotte (likely at the direction of WWE) was really leaning into the acting & character work aspect of wrestling and it falls super flat for me. This match has a lot of her standing chin up arms raised and it doesn't really feel earned to me. It feels really manufactured and thought out. "I'll look like a star if I do this." When she's in against someone like Trish who is naturally super charismatic, it really doesn't work for me. I want to see Charlotte more as a wrestling machine who overwhelms people as a superior athlete rather than someone leaning into her character work and acting because her shit talking and posing routine has yet to connect with me. 

[Kadaveri]

40 minutes ago, elliott said:

I want to see Charlotte more as a wrestling machine who overwhelms people as a superior athlete rather than someone leaning into her character work and acting because her shit talking and posing routine has yet to connect with me. 

You should watch the Ronda match. That's the closest she's ever got to wrestling like that.

[elliott]

I actually do intend on watching that one. I've only seen her first WM tag match but that was enough to tell me I need to watch all the Ronda matches

[Boss Rock]

The Ronda match might actually be my favorite Charlotte match, but I do think it helps she's wrestling Ronda's type of match.

[DylanZero]

David was a better Flair.

[cubbymark]

Bumping this thread in light of Charlotte’s match with Rhea Ripley at Wrestlemania 39.  This is Exhibit A of when Charlotte is on her A game, there are few people who are better.