Reviewing Charlotte Flair's Return on SmackDown

I spent weeks looking forward to the final SmackDown of 2022, and the reason can be summed up in two words: John Cena. It was announced earlier this month that Cena would return on the aforementioned edition of SmackDown, and it was two weeks prior that Cena stated that he would do so as Kevin Owens' partner against Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn, which (of course) would serve as the show's main event (as well as WWE's final televised match of 2022).

However, Cena wasn't the only umpteen-time world champion to appear on SmackDown.

Prior to Cena's main event, the SmackDown Women's Championship was set to be defended, with the blue brand's fiendish champion, Ronda Rousey, set to defend against Raquel Rodriguez, who won a gauntlet match to earn a title shot. Ronda was in her second reign as SmackDown Women's Champion, having regained the title from Liv Morgan at Extreme Rules two months prior. Since then, Ronda turned heel and formed a partnership with Shayna Baszler, which has seen the villainous pair bully, beat down, and even break members of the Women's Division. This included Raquel Rodriguez, as her right arm was busted by the duo.

Despite that, as well as Ronda attempting to throw a curveball into the gauntlet match, Raquel persevered and challenge Ronda. She had the odds against her; not only was she working on one good arm, she also was in a makeshift handicap match, as Shayna interjected herself on numerous occasions, including literally preventing Raquel from winning the title. Ronda retained, but her victory speech was interrupted by the return of a familiar foe: Charlotte Flair.

The last time we saw Charlotte Flair, she was in "evil queen" mode against Ronda at WrestleMania and at WrestleMania Backlash, and it was at the latter event where Ronda captured the blue brand title for the first time. Charlotte was written off as being injured (in real life, she was getting married to AEW's Andrade El Idolo), but in her return, Ronda assumed that Charlotte would face her at the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2023. She was half-right. Charlotte wanted to challenge her right on the spot, and much to the shock of Shayna, Ronda accepted. This was not a long match; it took all of 42 seconds, and it ended with Charlotte victorious and capturing the SmackDown Women's Championship.

When Charlotte made that challenge, I knew she would win, because...well...she's Charlotte. The relationship with Charlotte and WWE fans has been complex in recent years. Let's start with the elephant in the room: Charlotte Flair is a fourteen-time Women's Champion. And those are just the titles recognized by WWE's main roster. If you count her reigns as NXT Women's Champion, that's sixteen World Championships--the same total as her father. Because of this, women's wrestling (especially WWE) fandom has immensely soured on Charlotte, as she is always in the championship spotlight, and always wins them, even at the expense of those who needed elevation. Let's get one thing clear, though: that is definitely not Charlotte's fault, though a vast majority of the fanbase believe it is. It's simply WWE's "powers that be" feeling that the Women's Division has to have Charlotte on top as champion, when it's not really needed.

Regarding my own feelings, I'm still a big fan of Charlotte, but like a vast majority of the fanbase, I feel that she could afford to take a break from being champion/being in the title picture. However, in this instance, I was glad Charlotte won, and so were a lot of fans. The reason was simple: the luster on Ronda has worn off, and fans are getting tired of her. You know it's bad for Ronda when Charlotte Flair is the lesser of two evils. I myself wanted Ronda to be dethroned at some point; I didn't care who it was. I still wasn't happy that Ronda got the title back from Liv Morgan; they could have let Liv hang on to that title just a bit longer and have an actual WWE regular (who needed the elevation) beat her.

I'm also happy that Charlotte's a face again, and I hope she is one for as long as possible. She's done the whole heel thing a lot and for a long time, so much so that we don't really get to see her heroic side, and I know that as good as she is at being a villainess, she's equally as good as a heroine. there could be some other good factors to this, as well. For one, we should get a rematch at the Rumble, and if we do, that means we won't see Charlotte and Ronda in the Women's Rumble Match. Charlotte will most likely retain in their rematch, but who should be next? Maybe Lacey Evans (and her new militant gimmick) steps up? Maybe Liv challenges her? Or maybe a heel Raquel challenges Charlotte? After all, Raquel can't be too happy that Charlotte "jumped the line."

I know this, what we witnessed was quite a wild and crazy way to end 2022 on the WWE calendar. Here's to a very epic 2023 in WWE!