Charlotte Flair is now a 10-time Women's Champion after her win over Bayley at Hell In A Cell.
It might have seemed as if WWE had forgotten all about Hell In A Cell heading into Sunday night's PPV. Before the start of its kickoff show, just four matches had been announced. As the night unfolded, that card got padded out a little. Two more matches were added during the kickoff show, and other impromptu bouts took place throughout the night.
One of the matches lucky enough to be announced before the day of the show was Charlotte Flair versus Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Title. It only just made it in under that booking wire though and was only added after all of the go-home shows were done and dusted, including Friday night's debut of SmackDown on FOX.
RELATED: The Kabuki Warriors Turn Heel & Become Tag Champions At HIAC
Flair and Bayley are no strangers to one another and along with fellow horsewomen Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, they've been doing the rounds for a while. The Hugger has normally gotten the best of Flair in recent weeks, with the help of The Boss. However, without Banks around to help, Bayley came up short. Flair's win means she has now been champion ten times, and that's not including her reign as NXT Women's Champion.
What makes Flair's ten reigns even more impressive is that she has managed to rack them up in a little more than four years. What makes them less impressive is that she has had to lose the titles nine times in that period in order to be a ten-time champion. The goal by WWE here is pretty obvious. Have The Queen break her father's record. If you don't know by now, Ric Flair managed to win 16 World Championships during his career.
If that is indeed the plan, which it almost definitely is, don't expect Flair to be champ for long. We'd personally like to see one of her title reigns last a significant amount of time. It would certainly make it more meaningful if and when she does break her dad's record. This is the start of a new era of SmackDown on FOX, let's have Flair and Brock Lesnar enjoy lengthy title reigns. Yeah, we said it, and we're not sorry.