We’d all been wondering if something unusual would happen in the Women’s Champ versus Champ Match (if we can still call it that) tonight on Survivor Series, but none of us predicted how it would actually go. Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch was originally supposed to fight Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey in a possible main event, but after Becky suffered a broken face and a concussion while brawling with Nia Jax and the rest of the Raw women’s locker room, she was pulled from the show for medical reasons and chose Charlotte Flair as her replacement. At that point, we all sort of expected Ronda to get the win, letting Charlotte get plenty of offense in along the way, as the build continued for the eventually Becky versus Ronda match, probably at WrestleMania.
At first, that’s how it seemed to be going. There was plenty of back and forth, with both women struggling to get the upper hand. Then, when they were outside the ring, Charlotte grabbed a kendo stick and hit Ronda with it, taking a DQ loss in the process, but she didn’t stop there. Charlotte continued to attack Rousey, throwing her against the steel steps and then continuing to hit her with the kendo stick until it broke against her back. She even hit a Natural Selection onto a folding chair, and then put Ronda’s head through the chair and stomped it.
As the beatdown continued it became clear that much of the crowd was on Charlotte’s side. In fact, a loud “Thank you Charlotte!” chant broke out as Rousey took the worst of the beating. When Ronda finally got up she yelled at the officials not to touch her, and glared back at the unsympathetic crowd from the top of the ramp. What this means for Ronda Rousey, for Charlotte Flair and her relationship with Becky Lynch, and for this inter-brand feud — all of that remains to be seen, but it feels like an exciting place to be for the WWE Women’s Division.
