Monday’s episode of WWE Raw featured a contract signing for the upcoming Divas Championship match at Survivor Series and ended on a controversial note: Paige using the 2013 death of Charlotte’s brother Reid as part of the story. Charlotte cited Reid as her inspiration to become a WWE star — she’s here living out his dream, so she’s fighting for him — and Paige turned it around on her. “Your little baby brother didn’t have much fight in him, did he?”
The use of real-life tragedy as ammo for WWE storytelling is nothing new. Remember when Randy Orton told Rey Mysterio that Eddie Guerrero was in hell? Still, the segment caused some outrage on social media, and even drew comments from Charlotte and Reid’s mother, Elizabeth. She accused WWE’s writers of being lazy, calling the story “cruel” and “sad.”
@WWE @StephMcMahon @VinceMcMahon @TripleH WWEWriters really, that lazy! #CheapHeat #disgusting #disrespectful #cruel #sad 😥#RawGreenville
— Elizabeth Fliehr (@EFliehr) November 17, 2015
According to our sources, it was actually Charlotte herself who initially brought up the idea of using Reid in the promo. Pro wrestlers sometimes have a way of dealing with tragedy by turning it into fiction, where it can draw out real emotions and add fire to their performance. Charlotte was visibly shaken up for nearly the entire segment, if you need confirmation on how badly the death of her brother still hurts her.
