Charlotte Flair, Not Carmella, Is Top Heel WWE SmackDown Women's Division Needs
Despite a few solid showings in recent weeks, Carmella has largely failed to produce a memorable reign as SmackDown women's champion—or at least one that will remembered for the right reasons.
Carmella was a breath of fresh air when she entered the SmackDown Women's Championship picture immediately following WrestleMania 34. As cool of a moment as her surprise Money in the Bank cash-in was, she was never properly built up as a threat to the titleholder.
Thus, although her mic skills were slightly above average, she wasn't anywhere near the level that former champion Charlotte Flair was on at the time, especially in the ring. That was painfully apparent at Backlash, where Carmella and Charlotte contested what was undoubtedly the worst match of the night.
Instead of improving from that point forward, Carmella's wrestling ability has continued to worsen in the months that followed. Her subsequent feud with Asuka was abysmal, with their bouts at Money in the Bank and Extreme Rules falling well below average.
It hasn't helped that the promos her one-dimensional character has been cutting lately all sound the same. She has charisma for days and comes across like a star more often than not, but her work inside the ring and on the mic throughout her title reign have left a lot to be desired.
Four months removed from when she became SmackDown Women's champion, it's safe to say the Carmella experiment has been a bust and that it's time to transition Charlotte back into the role The Princess of Staten Island occupies.
An argument can be made that Charlotte, unlike Carmella, is overexposed in the title picture. To an extent, that is true considering she has already held seven championships between her stints on SmackDown Live, Raw and NXT since 2014.
In fact, despite being away from programming for over six weeks, Charlotte will by vying for the SmackDown Women's Championship again as soon as SummerSlam in a Triple Threat match with Carmella and Becky Lynch.
Some have said Charlotte isn't deserving of the opportunity and that it should be a one-on-one affair between Carmella and Lynch. However, that is exactly the reason why Charlotte should turn heel before long; the seeds have been planted for her friendship with Lynch to deteriorate because of her obsession with being the champion and stealing the spotlight from her best friend.
From the moment Charlotte arrived on WWE's main roster in 2015, it was obvious she was infinitely more comfortable as a heel than as a babyface. Her promos were much better once she turned heel at the end of that year, while Ric Flair and Dana Brooke were excellent additions to her act later on.
It didn't take her long to become one of the most despised villains in the company. Sasha Banks and Bayley benefited from working with her because she was so easy to hate, which is why her abrupt face turn in the spring of 2017 came as such a surprise.
The WWE Universe grew to respect the Flair family scion and embraced her as a fan favorite, but the last year of her tenure on SmackDown has lacked a certain something. Perhaps a heel turn is exactly what she needs to feel fresh again.
Lynch vs. Carmella at SummerSlam makes the most sense from a storyline standpoint since Lynch has gradually been building momentum for months and has earned her shot at the strap. Then again, Charlotte's involvement spices things up and creates genuine interest and unpredictability regarding the outcome.
Over time, Carmella should be phased out of the title scene, leaving Charlotte and Lynch to feud one-on-one. They have history dating back to their Team PCB days and never cease to produce remarkable matches together, so a face Lynch vs. a heel Charlotte for the belt would be a big bout down the road.
Between Lynch, Asuka and Naomi, SmackDown's women's division has enough strong babyfaces to go around, while Charlotte could lend a lot to the heel side of the roster by returning to her roots as a natural antagonist.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.
