Charlotte Flair is one of the most decorated women in professional wrestling history, winning a record-breaking number of titles in under a decade, wrestling her first match at the end of 2012. Her current tally sees her with six Raw, six Smackdown, one Divas, and two NXT Women’s Championships, with a tag title reign, and Royal Rumble victory too.
This is a mightily impressive list of accomplishments on paper, but in execution, Flair’s trophy cabinet doesn’t feel as significant as it should. This is down to a variety of reasons, with the issues mostly falling on the shoulders of WWE’s booking.
Charlotte Flair Is One Of The World’s Best, Even With Her Poor Reigns
When stating that Charlotte Flair’s championship reigns don’t feel important or mean anything, it is by no means any reflection on her as a performer. Flair is one of the best wrestlers in the world, which a clear natural ability at wrestling, as she entered the business late into her 20s. She often steals the show in matches, helping to kickstart the Women’s Revolution in WWE alongside the Four Horsewomen, legitimizing women’s wrestling in NXT before making her move to the main roster to do the same thing on Raw and Smackdown.
Her matches over the years against the likes of Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Asuka, Rhea Ripley, Trish Stratus, and Natalya have produced classics, making headlines on TV and PPV. Flair has also made history several times over, being one of the first women to main event a WWE PPV, whilst also being the first to wrestle in a Hell in a Cell and TLC match, among other things too. Although her babyface work hasn’t often been great, her role as a heel is usually top tier, with strong mic work and conviction, making herself look and feel like a star. So, what exactly have WWE got wrong with Flair?
Even WWE Can’t Keep Track Of How Many Titles Flair Has Won
Taking a look at Flair’s Raw Women’s Titles first, her longest reign was 113 days, which was her very first one. That was perhaps one her best reign at champion, as the ones proceeding it were poor. She and would play hot potato with Sasha Banks in 2016, with the title swapping six times within around six months, devaluing the belt, serving only to add to the number of reigns each woman had. Her next reign lasted just one day, being cashed in on, before she won it back within a month anyway. That reign would end when she was made to swap title belts with Becky Lynch’s Smackdown belt.
Speaking of that title, she has had only 1-2 reigns that really mattered. Her first lasted 146 days, though it did include a controversial victory over Asuka. Her subsequent reigns were short, lasting 27, 12, 1, and 4 days, with only her current reign surpassing 100 days. In fact, this current reign of the Smackdown Women’s Title is her longest to date, at over 170 days and counting, though it started in unconvincing fashion when during that aforementioned title exchange, and it hasn’t featured too many highlights since.
Sure, holding so many titles is impressive, but even WWE doesn’t quite know how many reigns she has, with varying numbers being thrown about, with it not being clear whether her Divas Title and initial Women’s Title reign were separate or continuous, with her NXT Titles being included at one point too. All this ambiguity proves that perhaps she has been given too many reigns with belts, with them not meaning much.
WWE’s Creative Is To Blame For Flair’s Poor Championship Reigns
A big issue with the number of reigns is that she hasn’t had many memorable feuds during her time as champion. Sure, there have been strong title feuds on occasion, but with many of her reigns being short, the reign itself isn’t salvaged by one or two good programs. Just looking at others on the roster, for example, Roman Reigns’ current Universal Championship reign has been the defining period of his entire career so far, with him having consistently strong matches, feuds, and great character work on top that, with the reign benefitting both him and the title itself.
The fact that Flair has had so many short, inconsequential, and lackluster reigns, isn’t through her own fault – it is a creative issue. The same can be said for several other individuals and championships too, but Flair is the clearest and most damning example due to the number of her championship wins. This causes a lot of discourse and negativity when it comes to Flair, which perhaps isn’t fair due to her great talents, but she is an unfortunate victim of WWE trying to up her tally just for the sake of it.