I’ve been singing the praises of Lash Legend over the past few weeks, and to my credit, she has been very good on the main roster (especially considering her in-ring inexperience). She’s managed to hold her own against the dominating force of Nia Jax, she’s put on some decent-to-great performances in WarGames, and against Alexa Bliss, and overall is a new, dominant face in a women’s division that is sorely lacking the fresh dimension she provides. Legend is on a hot streak in WWE, so by that logic, a match between her and proven talent Charlotte Flair should’ve been great, right?
Wrong.
I wanted to like this match so bad. On paper, it was a total draw: Legend is, again, one of the hottest female Superstars on “SmackDown” right now, and Flair is a fourteen-time world champion — like her or not, she is a proven in-ring performer. In the ring, though, this match was almost unwatchable. If I didn’t have to be here for work, I would have turned to television off. It was so bad.
We all know wrestling is predetermined. I know kayfabe warriors in the comments will yell at me, but let’s be realistic: all of these stunts are choreographed, so that they look as real as possible without hurting the other person. A part of the mystique and appeal with professional wrestling is just how real everything looks, even though its moves are fanciful and illogical. This is why flippy wrestlers like Will Ospreay and Carmelo Hayes (shout-out to the new US Champion) are so coveted in the industry. Pro wrestling is like live-action anime. Wrestling is choreographed, but in order to serve its purpose, the choreography has to…look like an actual hit. Legend and Flair had none of that.
I haven’t seen a match this clunky in a while, and while that could possibly be spun as a positive for WWE, I need Flair and Legend to clean up their act if this feud is going to last any longer (and with the blossoming of the women’s tag team division in WWE, it looks like it just might). Flair and Legend just kind of fumbled around each other the entire evening, with chops that didn’t quite land, and Big Boots that required the other person to pause as they waited for their target to conveniently place themselves into position for the blow. This match wasn’t just bad, clunky, and unwatchable. It was so awkward that everything in this match, right down to Flair’s delayed reaction to Jax jumping onto the apron, threatened to ruin the illusion of kayfabe.
Exaggeration aside, this match was really the worst of the night. We should have left this one in the drafts.
Written by Angeline Phu
