The Queen's challenge

October 7th, 2019 - Bakersfield California - Monday Night Raw

Raw is live from the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield California one night removed from Hell in a Cell. The show was supposed to start with a match between Randy Orton - the Captain of Team Flair at Crown Jewel and Rusev - a member of Team Hogan - who learned during last week’s main event that his wife Lana was cheating on him with Bobby Lashley.

But after the intro plays and the commentary team of Vic Joseph, Dio Maddin, and Jerry Lawler welcome everyone to the show, it isn’t Randy Orton’s music that hits. It isn’t Rusev’s. It isn’t even Ric Flair’s. Instead, it’s his daughter Charlotte Flair who makes her way out to the ring wearing her blue and silver robe over her blue ring gear.

Charlotte strides down the ramp to the ring and looks every bit like the royalty she is proclaimed to be as she makes her way up the stairs. She stops on the ring apron and gives ring announcer Mike Rome a long pointed look.

The announcer obliges the Queen’s ‘request’ and provides an introduction. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome… the Queen… Charlotte Flair!”

Flair receives a mixed reaction from the crowd. Even though she teamed with Becky Lynch on Smackdown against the ‘heels’ Sasha Banks and Bayley and then went on to face Bayley last night at Hell in a Cell, she still isn’t over as a face. It’s probably due to moments like this because the Queen still isn't satisfied after her introduction and she continues to stare imperiously at Mike Rome before looking pointedly down at the ropes. The ring announcer finally gets the message and hurries over to hold the ropes open for Charlotte. The Queen steps through the ropes then snatches the microphone right out of Rome’s hand as she walks into the middle of the ring.

“Last night, I was robbed,” Charlotte states once her music cuts. “I was on my way to winning my record breaking TENTH Women’s Championship when I was distracted by the single most disgraceful, most disgusting thing I have ever had the misfortune to see.” The crowd cheers at the mention of Carmella’s infamous ‘run’ from the night before. “I can tell that you already know what I’m talking about so I won’t waste my time telling you what it was. Instead, I’ll show you.”

The fans are treated to a replay of the ‘action’ that took place last night.

Carmella is shown sprinting down the entrance ramp in her birthday suit with only her 24/7 Championship belt for cover. Unlike last night which was a pay-per-view, this is the opening segment on a basic cable show so the ‘peeks’ that the fans previously got of Carmella’s tits and pussy are blurred out.

The recap of the chase continues as Lacey Evans, Sonya Deville, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Dana Brooke, Natalya, and Tamina come running down the ramp after Carmella. Carmella runs by the ring and again her private parts are blurred out as she leaps the barricade and escapes through the WWE Universe.

The replay shows Charlotte being distracted by the chase at ringside and once again perfectly captures the look of utter disgust on Charlotte’s face. But then she turns around and get kicked by Bayley before getting spiked with that vicious headlock driver and then being pinned to lose the match.

Charlotte is shown in the ring again and she looks furious. “Dis… graceful. I have been busting my back for the last FIVE YEARS trying to elevate the level of competition in the WWE Women’s Division and then in one minute Carmella destroys all my hard work and makes our division a laughing stock again. Next thing you know we’ll be competing in those demeaning Bra and Panties matches again.”

The fans actually pop at the mention of the Attitude Era staple of the ‘divas’ division. Charlotte’s expression shows that she is NOT pleased with that reaction.

“Carmella, you cost me my tenth championship,” Charlotte continues in a low, angry voice as she stares into the camera and seemingly addresses Carmella directly. “So to make up for it, I’m going to take yours. I’ll show you how a REAL champion conducts herself as I restore the dignity you’ve stolen from our women’s division. COME OUT AND FACE ME!”

Charlotte turns to face the entrance ramp and lets out a loud ‘WOOO!’ which echoes through crowd as the fans copy it.

But no music plays. There’s no sign of Carmella.

“Oh, that’s right!” Charlotte exclaims with a big fake smile, “I forgot who I was dealing with! I know how you operate, Carmella, the show’s just started so you’re probably already hiding under a rock like the cowardly cockroach you are!” Charlotte pauses while the fans boo. “So here’s your first lesson on how a REAL champion behaves. I know how to work with the higher ups in this company and I know one of them who wants that 24/7 Championship off of you almost as much as I want to be the one to take it from you.”

Charlotte once again turns to the entrance ramp and this time music DOES hit as Stephanie McMahon makes her way out from the back.

The commentators remind everyone about the one hundred thousand dollar reward that WWE's Chief's Brand Officer offered to anyone who could win the 24/7 Championship from Carmella at Hell in a Cell. That bounty was what had incited a number of women to attack Carmella backstage and what eventually escalated to the blonde streaking the Golden 1 Center in order to escape with her 24/7 Championship.

Stephanie joins Charlotte in the ring and Flair passes off her microphone to McMahon.

“Four years ago, I brought Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks up to the main roster and kick-started the Women’s Evolution. And ever since then the WWE Women’s Division has progressed by leaps and bounds. The Divas Championship became the Women’s Championship, we added a second Women’s Championship for Smackdown because of the vast depth of talent on the WWE roster, and back in February, we took things a step further and created the Women’s Tag Team Championships. Later tonight, Natalya and Lacey Evans will be facing off in a Last Lady Standing match and that's a perfect example of how the women of the WWE have been constantly shattering the glass ceiling. They've competed in Last Woman Standing matches, Hell in a Cell matches, Iron Woman matches, Elimination Chambers, TLC, and we've even made the all-women's Royal Rumble match an annual tradition. The women in this company weren't satisfied with merely main eventing Raw and Smackdown. They've main evented pay-per-views, they had THEIR OWN pay-per-view last year, and back in April, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Ronda Rousey became the first women to main event WrestleMania.”

Stephanie pauses and the fans cheer the progress of the WWE Women’s Division.

“But over the last week, I’ve had to watch as one woman was seemingly hell-bent on undoing all that progress and dragging the WWE Women’s Division back to the dark ages. Carmella. She has not only made the 24/7 Championship into a joke but her actions on Friday's Smackdown nearly destroyed the credibility of the Women’s Tag Team Championships. The 24/7 Championship is a new championship but it’s also a very unique championship. It's anywhere at anytime nature makes it the ultimate green card since the 24/7 Champion can appear on any brand in order to defend the championship. That makes the 24/7 Champion an exception in the WWE Draft. And I WILL NOT allow Carmella to have that kind of freedom. Every day she holds the 24/7 Championship is another day that she can embarrass this company.”

The fans begin to boo Stephanie’s heavy handed description of Carmella’s actions. Because as much as the audience may support the progress of the WWE Women’s Division, the desire to see those same sexy, powerful woman naked or in a state of exposure will always exist. Up until recently, that desire was merely a fantasy but Carmella’s clearly controversial recent actions have made that impossible fantasy a reality and the fans are loving every minute of it.

And the fans in the arena aren’t the only ones interested in seeing the women of WWE naked. Left out of Stephanie McMahon’s revisionist history was last week’s ratings spike. Normally, there is a significant drop off in viewership for the third hour of Raw because most casual fans can’t sit through a full three hours of WWE programming. But after word got out of Carmella getting jumped in the showers and a multitude of new viewers tuned in just in time to see Sarah Logan get pantsed. Things continued to escalate and the viewership continued to rise and culminated with over four MILLION viewers baring witness to Carmella’s encounter with Nikki Cross and the full nudity that took place at the end of it. Controversial as she may be, Carmella has become an extremely popular figure in the WWE.

“Normally,” Stephanie continues, “I’d just strip an offending superstar of their title and fire them and be done with it. But Carmella has some special clauses in her contract that date all the way back to her time on Smackdown Live which prevent me from doing that. And so last night, after watching Carmella further embarrass the WWE by exposing herself and another woman in order to keep that title, I offered up a one hundred thousand dollar reward to anyone who could get that title away from her.”

“They tried but they all failed,” Charlotte chimes in after getting a new microphone. “Enter THE QUEEN... Charlotte Flair. I approached Stephanie McMahon before the show tonight and I told her that I could solve her Carmella problem and that I wouldn’t need a hundred thousand dollars to do it.. A hundred grand is chump change for a Queen. All I asked for was a one-on-one match against Carmella with the 24/7 Championship on the line.”

“Carmella is a comedic sideshow that has long overstayed her welcome," Stephanie states, "Charlotte Flair, on the other hand, is the most dominant woman in WWE history. THAT is why she is the Queen and that is why the outcome of the upcoming championship match is already a foregone conclusion.” Stephanie McMahon turns to face the entrance ramp and addresses Carmella directly, “Carmella, I hope you’re listening. I am officially suspending the 24/7 Rule. Security has been instructed to escort you straight to the ring to ensure that you won't be accosted along the way. That means you're out of excuses. Because if you DON'T come to the ring right now for this officially sanction championship match then I'll hold you in breech of contract and then I WILL have the grounds to strip you of the 24/7 Championship.”

“You might as well face the music, Carmella,” Charlotte adds, “You’re about to lose your title either way. It’s inevitable.”

Everything is quiet for a few seconds as the anticipation builds.

“F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.”

Carmella’s music plays and the 24/7 Champion emerges from the back. She has her title and a live microphone with her. After getting stripped bottomless during her title match last night, Carmella is out to prevent a repeat performance and is wearing one of her classic one piece singlets. The singlet in question is the green-tinted money singlet that is decorated with a collage of $100 bills with a white diamond patterned ‘Fabulous C’ emblazoned on the chest.

The fans cheer loudly for the arrival of Carmella. Despite all the controversy surrounding her, the Princess of Staten Island has become a full blown fan favorite. And there’s nothing that gets a burgeoning babyface superstar over faster than pitting them against a McMahon.

“Wow, just wow,” Carmella remarks as she makes her way down the ramp. “I never thought I’d see the day when a McMahon was afraid of a little controversy. It makes me glad I had those clauses added to my contract so you can't unjustly strip me of a title like what happened when I won the first-ever women's Money in the Bank Ladder match. I was stripped of my new briefcase and had to win it all over again on Smackdown two weeks later. Eric Bischoff used to say ‘controversy creates cash’.” Carmella pauses and motions to her money-printed singlet and also the 24/7 Championship that’s around her waist. “Well, I'm swimming in it and now I’m literally wearing the proof that Mella is money.”

“Times change, just like people,” Stephanie replies. “We don’t need to be controversial when we can be groundbreaking. You need to get with the times because your kind of controversy has no place in this company.”

“You know, this last week hasn’t exactly been easy for me either,” Carmella points out. “I’ve had to deal with all sorts of lewd comments on Twitter. My favorite one is from this one cheeky pervert who asked me ‘Why do you even bother pretending to be a blonde anymore? At this point the whole world knows that you’re a natural brunette’.” Carmella stops on the ramp and takes a very blatant look downward at her crotch then she looks back up and flips her long blonde hair. “It’s not like I was ever shy about telling people that the brown hair I was sporting last year is my natural hair color. What do you think Stephanie? Maybe I should’ve told him that I went blonde again because that’s what your daddy likes best!”

A loud ‘OOOH’ emanates from the crowd as Carmella blatantly acknowledges one Vince McMahon’s ‘preferences’.

“I’m a lot of things but one thing I’m NOT is a liar,” Carmella continues. “If you need proof of my claims all you have to do is turn your head and look to your left." Carmella makes a show a squinting and points at the tall blonde woman standing beside Stephanie in the ring. "OH! Look! It's Charlotte. And here she is being handed YET ANOTHER title match. You accuse me of being bad for business but there you are playing favorites with Charlotte again. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left scratching and clawing over the Queen’s scraps. It’s no wonder Sarah Logan felt like she had to jump me in the showers to get noticed around here. And I don’t know if you were counting but I sure was, seven of the eleven women that jumped me and chased me around backstage last night were brunettes.”

“Don’t try to spin things,” Charlotte objects, “They were chasing you because ever since you won the 24/7 Championship, you've spent all night hiding like a cowardly rat! THAT’S why Sarah Logan resorted to jumping you in the shower.”

“I’m not going to apologize for anything I’ve done in order to keep my baby,” Carmella declares. “On Friday, I stared straight into a camera and swore to the WWE roster and the WWE Universe that there was nothing I wouldn’t do and no length I wouldn’t stoop to in order to keep my baby. And I meant every single word of that. But because I'm a woman of my word who actually backs up her claims, I'm not only dealing with a hypocritical McMahon who doesn’t like me creating controversy but now I’ve also got a FLAIR accusing me of using dirty tactics!”

“Even the Dirtiest Player in the Game knew to draw the line somewhere,” Charlotte insists. “Get in this ring and I’ll show you how to hold a championship with dignity.”

“Oh Charlotte,” Carmella sighs, “If you think you can just strut around that ring and take this title from me without getting the fight of your life… then you are SADLY mistaken!”

Charlotte drops her microphone and, still clad in her blue and silver Flair robe, steps back into the middle of the ring with her arms spread wide.

“COME AND SHOW ME!” Charlotte shouts.

Stephanie steps out of the way while Carmella runs the rest of the way down the ramp and slides into the ring under the bottom rope.

But before the match can get fully underway, Vic Joseph apologizes on commentary and says that they have to take a quick commercial break but promises the fans watching at home that the Charlotte vs Carmella match for the 24/7 Championship will begin when Raw returns.