Paige insults Charlotte's dead brother

[Str8Shooter]

So it was weird enough having the contract signing between Paige and Charlotte end the go home edition of Raw, so I knew something was up. Charlotte cut an emotional promo about doing this for her brother Reid who passed away a couple years ago. At the end of the promo Paige said, and I might be paraphrasing a bit, "your brother didn't put up much of a fight", or something along those lines. Leading to a big pull apart brawl.

So, using a dead family member in the storyline, fair game or too far?

[SlightlyJames]

I think it was dumb on quite a few levels really. It's not particularly tasteful or even effective, as I doubt the average viewer even knows about Reid. Charlotte is not a very good promo and I don't think this material did her any favours. Paige did an alright job of it and I think her addressing Reid after Charlotte already brought him up is fair game really. Why this ended the show rather than Reigns vs Cesaro, I don't know.

[DBSoT]

I don't necessarily have a problem with it, assuming Charlotte and Ric green lit the segment. It does however make WWE look like hypocrites. They try to perpetuate this family friendly image, but then use stuff like this for cheap reactions. It was the same with Eddie and worst of all Paul Bearer. I am not saying I don't enjoy the attempt to add fuel to a feud. What I don't appreciate is WWE using dead wrestlers as a replacement for their lazy writing. They aren't good enough to write interesting stories so they go the cheap shock route.

[War Daddy]

Charlotte sucks on the mic, that's the real issue here.

[Hanley!]

Why this ended the show rather than Reigns vs Cesaro, I don't know.

Oh that's actually pretty obvious. It's not because they thought this was a hugely important angle. It's actually the complete opposite. WWE's ratings have been tanking lately, but particularly that third hour. They dropped well under 3 million viewers during the final hour of last week's Raw, which is a big deal. Apparently their response is to move the important stuff out of the last hour, rather than actually promoting something for the last hour that people might want to see.

Watching how WWE reacts to failure these days is pretty unsettling. When they started going head to head with football, they started putting their biggest segments on first thing on the show before the matches started instead of actually trying to keep fans from switching over. When ratings go down for their third hour, they just move the important stuff off that third hour. They're doing nothing to fix any of these problems at all. They're being very submissive whenever challenged. All of their strategies lately have come across as damage control at best.

As for bringing up Charlotte's dead brother, it's pretty hideous. That it's so far after he passed almost makes it seem worse. It's not even an obvious hot button issue that's there to exploit, this was far from the obvious route to go with this angle but they did it anyway. I guess they figure barely anyone was watching the segment anyway.

[Viazon]

I think it's distasteful to use a deceased relative as a way to move a story line along. However, the person related to the departed is ok with it, then it doesn't bother me. I personally would feel uncomfortable doing it, whether or not they were fine with it.

[The Legend]

May it be a little distasteful? Sure, maybe. But Charlotte seemed fine with it, and more importantly, it's the first time in ages WWE has really used to any level of effectiveness something that could bring any level of personal heat to any of their rivalries. Personally, I love it and the only real problem with it is the WWE doesn't do it often enough any more so that it's so much more of a shock when they do something effective.

It goes back to the discussion on risk taking we were having in another thread where people were asking where them taking risks had gone and here it is. We've become such a sterile society that things like this seem so hideous. I wonder, where were the threads when Big Boss Man and Big Show were doing the angle on Big Show's dad dying immediately after it happened? People expected it back then and weren't so thin-skinned about it.

[Hanley!]

May it be a little distasteful? Sure, maybe. But Charlotte seemed fine with it, and more importantly, it's the first time in ages WWE has really used to any level of effectiveness something that could bring any level of personal heat to any of their rivalries. Personally, I love it and the only real problem with it is the WWE doesn't do it often enough any more so that it's so much more of a shock when they do something effective.

It goes back to the discussion on risk taking we were having in another thread where people were asking where them taking risks had gone and here it is. We've become such a sterile society that things like this seem so hideous. I wonder, where were the threads when Big Boss Man and Big Show were doing the angle on Big Show's dad dying immediately after it happened? People expected it back then and weren't so thin-skinned about it.

What a stupid risk to take though. Most of the audience probably didn't even know who Reid was before this segment. It's a really forced and contrived angle, and it's not exactly an issue that's relevant to today. If Charlotte had mentioned Reid a few times on television before this then maybe at least it'd be a story that made sense, but this came out of nowhere and seemed like an ugly and desperate cry for attention.

Also, we really don't know how okay Charlotte was with this. I mean when they make fun of Jerry Lawler's heart attack on air and people defend that by saying that Lawler was okay with it, then that's one thing. Lawler is an old hand with plenty of pull, who's capable of putting his foot down. Or even walking out if he really disagrees with something. Charlotte is only on Raw for a few months, she's a disposable wrestler and she's not someone who can easily tell Vince McMahon and the other writers that she's not going to go with one of their angles. If she turned stuff down, she could probably say goodbye to her title and goodbye to her push. This is something that she might have been asked to do a day before the show, and could have felt pressured into doing. It's pretty cruel to have her go out there and talk about her deceased brother, the first time she had to cut a long promo on Raw (and in the main event too). It must have been a rotten position to have been put in.

Reid's mother was tweeting about it too, and she obviously knew nothing about it and didn't take too kindly to it either. Imagine her turning on the television to watch Charlotte and having to see her son's death being exploited for a bad angle.

[prophet]

I didn't have a problem with it. It'll have been approved by Charlotte and Ric and made the bad blood seem real between the two rivals, the fact that Paige only referenced it after Charlotte first brought it up is what made it fair game and was a despicably heel thing for her to do, I'm actually somewhat interested in seeing them go at it now so they've done their job. I don't want to draw comparisons with the Attitude Era if I can avoid it because its a fairly cheap point but for a community that longs for those type of days to return I find it a bit bizarre how offended people have been by it.

I'd have Paige win the title on Sunday, too. Charlotte is boring and isn't a good champion. Paige is at least (more) interesting.

[Hanley!]

It's not like people are longing for the days that Big Boss Man could mock Big Show over his dead father. People miss the good elements of the Attitude Era, not the needlessly offensive shit.

Attitude Era was great for its star power, its main event storylines and its willingness to try new things, but it wasn't perfect and I don't think they should be trying to copy it in every aspect. When they switched to PG, I was delighted that I'd never have to watch a Bra and Panties match or a Lingerie Pillowfight ever again.

[The Legend]

It's not like people are longing for the days that Big Boss Man could mock Big Show over his dead father. People miss the good elements of the Attitude Era, not the needlessly offensive shit.

Attitude Era was great for its star power, its main event storylines and its willingness to try new things, but it wasn't perfect and I don't think they should be trying to copy it in every aspect. When they switched to PG, I was delighted that I'd never have to watch a Bra and Panties match or a Lingerie Pillowfight ever again.

I miss the days of the Attitude Era where a heel could be a heel and do something or say something offensive to draw more heat than they could have gained in another way and people would be able to say, that guy plays a bad guy and did something despicable because that's his job. So now we want our heels to be heels that don't draw anything to draw heat. And guess what we get what we have today where half the crowd or more actually cheer FOR the heel. You want to talk about how things are broken in pro wrestling, this is a fantastic place to start.

Nothing Paige or Charlotte has done could have possibly affected an emotional reaction the way Paige mocking Charlotte's brother did. Even if you didn't know who Reid was before last night, you knew enough after Charlotte's promo. Anybody that's lost a close relative could relate to that pain last night, then to have someone mock that relative they could feel the hurt and the anger that would draw. It would piss them off and make them despise Paige on at least some level, which again is the whole fricken point for the heel.

A heel being a hell and doing or saying something truly awful to draw heat is nowhere near the same thing as a lingerie pillow fight and that's a horrible comparison to draw.

[Messiah]

I don't think it is a big deal. It's just acting. I think people forget that sometimes.

[Messiah]

Also FWIW, the Boss Man/Show segment was extremely uncomfortable to watch when I saw it on the Raw 15th Anniversary DVD. That is an example of going too far. Stuff like that and Katie Vick can stay away from TV. I wouldn't compare that garbage with the Paige/Charlotte segment.

[Hanley!]

And I miss the days where heels could just draw heat based on the strength of their characters and the story, rather than tastelessly bringing real life stuff in to draw a cheap reaction. Which is more common nowadays than it has ever been.

Stuff like this is stupid because by bringing in something so personal (two years after the fact) all the heat goes on WWE, and none of it is on Paige. I mean was the brawl that ended the show last night really heated after Paige made things so personal? No, it wasn't. Were the crowd really into it? No, they weren't. Because while angles like this leave a bad taste in people's mouth and get some people talking, they do so in the wrong way and add very little to the actual wrestling product.

There's a way to use real life stuff to further angles, but this is just the laziest, least effective way possible. It's so manipulative and so phony that everyone sees through it.

[The Legend]

I don't want to speak for the crowd last night or the people in it, but I'll tell you this much, if I were in the crowd last night I would have booed Paige louder than any other heel on the show last night.

[Str8Shooter]

To people pointing to the Bossman thing, it was a bit different. His ridiculous poem and crashing Big Show's father's funeral with a megaphone insulting them was so over the top ludicrous that it might as well have been played for laughs. Hell when it's brought up now it's usually in a comedic tone.

It would be one thing if this was some months of years long blood feud. But it's so obviously a desperation ploy to add any sort of heat to an angle that has absolutely none. That crowd on Raw might as well have been in a coma during that segment before that comment. No one cares about this feud. Paige is the heel and she's getting cheers often times. The break up was poorly done, with them taking Paige back a week after she attacked them, only for them to look like idiots when she did it again.

The booking for this feud, and the "Divas Revolution" in general has been sub standard with little character development. They can't shoe horn in some character stuff at the last second and expect people not to see through the shock value.

[KaiserGlider]

I'm in the camp that doesn't have a problem with it. It puts heat on Paige and brings some ruthless aggression to a feud for once.

[Taveus]

Some tweets regarding Ric Flair's reaction during his podcast:

Really shitty of WWE if true.

[The Legend]

If Ric didn't know it was coming then yes this is wrong and they should have notified and hopefully cleared it with him, but that's on a personal level. It still doesn't change my opinion as a fan on the effectiveness of the angle.

[Str8Shooter]

Good Lord, reading that Flair had no idea is insane. I thought for sure he would have gave it the go ahead. Especially with Trips and him having such a good relationship.