WWE Raw Superstar Profile and Grades: Charlotte

The current WWE Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte is coming off an outstanding first year on WWE’s main roster that has seen her dominate the division while cementing herself as a building block for the women’s evolution.

Name: Charlotte

Age: 30

Career Accomplishments: WWE Women’s Champion (2x), WWE Divas Champion (1x), NXT Women’s Champion (1x)

WWE Main Roster Debut: July 2015

As the daughter of Ric Flair, who is a man consider to be the greatest pro wrestler of all-time, Charlotte has had big shoes to fill ever since she was signed to a WWE developmental deal in 2012. She didn’t have wrestling experience before she was signed, but as a former volleyball star and personal trainer, the hope was that she would transition to pro wrestling well. Four years after signing, she’s the top women’s wrestler in the company and she’s just getting started.

Workrate (In-ring Performance)

Charlotte has really impressed a lot of people with how good she is in the ring already. Considering she had no experience before WWE hired her shows that she’s a hard worker. She’s also benefiting from being “genetically superior” as she likes to tell us all the time.

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Her in-ring style is a mix of technical wrestler, submissions, and athleticism. She does a good job of working on the legs of her opponents to set them up for the impressive Figure Eight submission hold. The Natural Selection is a pretty good secondary finish because she flips over her opponent and then drives their head into the mat. We’ve also seen her bust out that top rope moonsault onto somebody on the floor, which is really rare for a woman to do. The good thing is that she’s been able to stay healthy while also improving her game in all areas. As good as she is now, in two or three years she’ll probably be even better once she has more experience. Grade: B+

Promos

This is an area where she’s really improved in during her one-year run on the main roster. As a babyface wrestler, she appeared to be shy, timid and lacking confidence. Then she turned heel late last year, was given a lot more promo time as a result and had some bumpy moments at times, but she was able to show improvement as well. When she’s doing a promo now, she usually does a good job of being that cocky, evil woman that a heel champion should be.

If this was written a year ago she may have been a C+ in terms of promos. She’s improved enough that she’s a solid B now and much her in-ring work, she’ll likely improve in this area as well. Grade: B

Charisma/Look

Charlotte looks like an incredible athlete that was born to be a pro wrestler even though it took her until her mid-20s to figure that out. She wears a top and tights along with traditional wrestling boots. She’s actually commented on social media that she knows her boots are old, but she’s nervous about wearing other boots.

In terms of charisma, she doesn’t seem like she is the most outgoing girl, which is okay because she’s just playing a character on television. It works for her. Considering her dad was one of the most charismatic wrestlers ever, that’s a lot to live up to, but she’s doing the best she can.

She has the ring entrance of a star with a theme song that is more of an upbeat version of her dad’s song. Adding the robe to her attire is also a nice tribute to daddy Ric because he made the robe to the ring popular in pro wrestling in the first place. It’s cool that she is carrying on that legacy. Grade: B+

Character

Turning her heel late last year was a smart move because she wasn’t doing that well as a face. Part of that was because she had an awful feud with Paige. Whether she was going to turn at that any point anyway, we don’t know. Fans should be glad she did because she is a lot more natural as the bad girl that likes bragging about how great she is. There’s not much depth to the character either because she’s just somebody that will cheat to win, she’ll back it up in the ring and brag about it after it’s over.

Currently, she has Dana Brooke as an ally. It doesn’t seem like a good fit, but WWE management is high on Brooke because of her look. They want her to benefit from being around Charlotte and it does allow Charlotte to get some cheap wins too.

In a year or two maybe she should turn face once they have another woman to be the lead heel. However, this is clearly the role she was meant to be in, so they should roll with it for as long as they can. As long as she has good faces to go against like Sasha Banks and Bayley, she should have a lot of longevity as the top heel woman on Raw. Grade: B

Future Outlook

Charlotte is the best example of WWE’s bright future in the women’s division. She’s a bit older than the likes of Sasha Banks, Bayley, Becky Lynch and Paige, but Charlotte has the most athletic ability of any woman in the company. She’s also six feet tall, so she has more of a ring presence than the other girls. The exciting thing is that she’s still only four years into her WWE career, which suggests that her best days are still ahead of her. As the years go by, she’s going to make us say “wow” even more than she currently does with those moonsaults and Flair-like bump she can do in the corners.

A lot of fans often wonder if two women are ever going to headline a main roster WWE pay-per-view. Nobody knows for sure at this point, but when you have women as talented as Charlotte on the roster it’s something that makes a lot of sense considering how good she already is and how much better she may become. The sky is the limit for her.

Overall Grade (Not An Average): B+

Next wrestler profile: Smackdown’s Bray Wyatt.

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