The booking schematic on Monday Night Raw defies logic, reason, and all common sense when it comes to superstars, both male & female, performing in front of the home folks.
This week's Raw was a prime example of the hometown star curse taken too far. The caravan arrived in Charlotte, NC, home not only of Charlotte Flair, but also R-Truth and Cedric Alexander. The common link? All three lost.
It was assumed that Charlotte would avoid the curse and retain the women's title, ending her feud with Sasha Banks, after Banks had fallen victim to the hometown curse at Hell in a Cell last month. Nope. Banks got the win back after an instant rematch was ordered up by GM Mick Foley after Banks & Flair went to a double countout earlier in the show. In effect, Charlotte was struck twice in the same night.
R-Truth was squashed by Braun Strowman, who really needs to be feuding with someone like US champ Roman Reigns right about now. Alexander fell to Tony Nese after Drew Gulak caused a distraction. That kind of finish needs to go away, since it's been done to death. But because Vince McMahon refuses to allow common sense to enter into the creative process......!
So Charlotte, who seemingly never loses on PPV, will get one more crack at Roadblock on December 18 to end what amounts to Raw's Feud of the Year. Do they really need to keep flipping the belt like it's a hot potato? No, not really, but until Vince finally decides to step back and let Triple H & Stephanie run the show as a whole (and Steph missed the fun, since she was in China on business), we're stuck with stupid decisions like this. Short title reigns will not define the rebooted women's title. Ever.
Both Charlotte & Sasha enjoyed long runs with the NXT Women's title, so why not let them go 4, 5, maybe 6 months with the Raw belt? Because Vince thinks the core audience still has a short attention span. Man, is he ever wrong!
One wonders, though, if these short reigns suggest a certain washed-up scribe has washed ashore at Titan Towers in secret. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Vince Russo. Your influence is still there, though embodied by the insane chairman.
Here's to hoping Sasha ends Charlotte's PPV winning streak at Roadblock. Otherwise, it's going to be more of the same old, same old. And we don't want that.
