I won’t waste a lot of time complaining about WWE’s lazy Susan understanding of how “being a heel” is supposed to work, where the talking point slowly rotates between “they’re a heel if they’re getting booed,” to, “they’re a heel if they’re acting like a heel whether they’re being cheered or not, and faces are heels if they’re acting like faces and getting booed,” to, “it’s a popularity contest,” to, “it’s whoever the announcers say is the face or the heel this week,” to, “any reaction is a good reaction.” Sheamus has been stuck on that last one since like 2012. What I will say is that Becky Lynch cut the best promo of her WWE career on Smackdown, her actions are 100% justifiable and understandable, and WWE should really consider coming around on this crowd reaction and understanding that Becky’s easy to love and Charlotte’s a goddamn FLAIR.
I don’t know if WWE ever really understood how hated Ric Flair was, or was supposed to be. He spend his prime in the NWA being the world’s worst person for like an entire decade. In the ’90s he went face a few times, sure, based almost purely on nostalgia and longtime wrestling fans coming around to the understanding that yeah, he sucks in every way a human can, but he’s so good at it that you have to laugh and clap for him. His 1992 WWF run got it, but when he came back he was already Old Man Flair, the icon you want to see (because he’s Ric Flair) but he’s not going to really do anything. WWE thinks of Flair’s legacy as that part for his entire career. Charlotte’s out here being the worst definition of Female Roman Reigns, down to the bad promos and good matches with absolutely no understanding of how human emotions work and a complete deafness to the audience’s response, and longtime fans are just dying for her to cut the shyt and be a Flair.