Originally slated to feature Natalya against Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, this past Tuesday’s title change that saw Charlotte Flair become a 6x Champion in the WWE (4x Raw Champion, 1x Smackdown Champion, 1x Divas Champion) changed the match completely with just days to go before Sunday’s Survivor Series clash between Raw and Smackdown Live.
With this match-up, we have a true test between easily the top two women’s performers in the WWE the past year. Since arriving on the main roster from her NXT call-up as part of the Divas Revolution in late 2015, Charlotte Flair has emerged as the top women’s wrestler in the WWE. While many detractors lay her success on her familial surname, there’s no denying that her talent and constant improvements have garnered and secured her top spot. As people like Manu or Camacho (or even Eddie Guerrero’s daughter Shaul) can attest to, a name will get your foot in the door, but you have to fight for your job just like everyone else. And Charlotte has done that in spades. Last year saw Charlotte, alongside NXT rival Sasha Banks, elevate women’s wrestling in the WWE, main eventing Raw and PPVs, en route to capturing four Raw women’s titles, including the inaugural one at last year’s WrestleMania. While her trade to Smackdown Live was initially cut short due to her father’s health scare, she returned with a vengeance, defeating long time foe Natalya Neidhart for her first Smackdown Women’s Championship just this past week. While she may not possess her dad’s undeniable “IT” factor and promo abilities, Charlotte’s work ethic in the ring and consistently pushing herself to better has made her one of the WWE’s most valuable members, male or female, on either brand.
Alexa Bliss on the other hand, is something of an anomaly. While many NXT stars seem to be underutilized or slower out of the gate when it comes to achieving the same level of success on the main roster, Alexa Bliss became a far greater commodity. In NXT, she was a mediocre performer – most likely due to the fact she was behind such emerging stars as Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Emma, and Charlotte herself. Her best moments in NXT came as the valet for then NXT Tag Team Champions, Blake & Murphy. The entire world was shocked when Alexa Bliss was drafted at all in last summer’s brand draft, even if it was in the second round (although she was actually taken one pick ahead of Braun Strowman). But once she arrived on the main roster, every ounce of potential seemed to be recognized and she became not only one of the most consistent women on Smackdown Live, but on the entire roster. She took control of the crowd as a magnetic red hot heel, capturing two Smackdown Women’s titles in a three month span. Following this year’s WrestleMania, Bliss was part of the Superstar Shake-up and sent to Raw, immediately making an impact – in her first few months on the Red brand, she dethroned both Bayley and Sasha Banks to become a 2x Raw Women’s Champion (and 4x Women’s Champion overall). She’s almost entirely unrecognizable as the same Alexa Bliss that roamed the halls of Full Sail University a few years ago. Now she’s got more confidence, swagger and bravado than most of the locker room on either side.
This could prove to be one of the best women’s matches since the Divas Revolution first began, simply because of it’s unfamiliarity as a match-up combination, and to how far both women have progressed as performers in the last year alone. As amazing as Charlotte vs Sasha was last year, it was a rivalry that many had seen for nearly 3 years, stemming back to NXT. But this is something new entirely. In their entire WWE careers, Charlotte and Alexa Bliss have only faced each other once before, on a September 2014 episode of NXT, where Flair defeated Bliss. There’s been a few triple threats, fatal four ways and tag team encounters in NXT around the same time, but they have yet to face each other one-on-one on the main roster. And with both women peaking as the top stars of each brand, it’s one of the few matches that has an aura of unpredictability about it, that only adds to the excitement of such a marquee match-up.
Prediction: Charlotte Flair just won the title, so she’ll need the momentum coming out of the PPV more, so expect Bliss to take the loss, but continue to surge as Raw‘s dominant alpha female (until Asuka gets to her, that is).
