WWE Clash of Champions 2019 review: Highlights, takeaways and projections

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match

Bayley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair

There really wasn’t enough time for a big breakdown on this SmackDown Women’s Championship Match. There’s still that blurry line on Charlotte Flair at the moment as we don’t quite know if she’s supposed to still be a heel or has made a subtle babyface turn. We know that Bayley has gone to the dark side but is still pretending she’s a babyface, which has actually made her character quite interesting. The “Role Model” tights were a great touch. We knew that Flair was going to get a big pop in her hometown, which she did, so she was at least the babyface for this particular matchup.

Charlotte got in most of the offense during the match but that still wasn’t that much as the bout went less than four minutes. Flair had Bayley down in the corner but the champ was just laying there untying the turnbuckle pad, which exposed the steel underneath. After getting past the referee, Flair ran into a Bayley trip, hit said steel and got pinned. The match was terrible but the finish just furthered this new character for the champion. It was a cheap win, a win that even the announce team said that Ric Flair would be proud of, the type of win that Charlotte has gotten so many times before.

What’s next: It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here. I thought Charlotte might get the win here — even in her hometown — so she would be the champion heading into the SmackDown debut on FOX in a few weeks, but perhaps they’re saving the rematch for that night. Bayley will likely come out and cut a promo on Tuesday night explaining why she did what she did and Flair will interrupt her, which should lead into another match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.