Heard there's been a big controversy over what happened on Monday night Raw.
I'm torn on this. I love the personal rivalries where the storylines are more than just about title shots or 'you cost my match blah blah' and when its done right its magic as we've seen over the years.
However a heel trying to provoke a babyface by using the death of a family member ? It feels uncomfortable and you could see Charlotte was a wreck in the segment. Obviously she wasn't gonna say no to doing the segment as she's still a young up-and-comer and doesn't want to appear as a 'bad team player'.
However to not even run the angle by Ric or Elizabeth Flair who's Charlotte's mother and ask if they're OK with it, that's low. Infact Ric didn't even know about it until they did it live. Elizabeth spoke out against it on Twitter. Come on WWE, you don't need to exploit the death of a relative whose died two years ago from a drug overdose to sell PPVs. Its not the first time its happened either, it brought back memories of those uncomfortable segments with Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton where they kept invoking Eddie Guerrero's death.
While I agree that if the Flair Family were cool with the idea of using Reid to elevate a segment to generate heat and interest in the feud am not torn in terms of whether or not Reid's death should have been exploited. In these times WWE should never have allowed it and here are the reasons:
1. It shows how big of a hypocrite WWE can be.
Blood is not permitted in matches.
Daniel Bryan gets released for a mix of a questionably overzealous tie choke on Justin Roberts in the Nexus invasion and then spitting in John Cena’s face.
CM Punk gets admonished for a tweet where he jokingly reflects upon shitting his pants during a match with curse words.
Whether it’s for the sake of sponsor acquisition, a “getting with the times” attitude or some other reason, WWE is well within the PC bubble that’s entrenched itself in Western culture. This is the WWE that brings in Susan G. Komen, created B A Star and is attached to Connor’s Cure.
Yet, somehow, it’s ok to mention Reid Flair, as Paige uses his death via accidental overdose to get into Charlotte’s head. A man legitimately parishes as he deals with his demons and the company that considers “****” tweets, tie chokes and juicing too much for their shows… is apparently OK with it.
No possible justification for the inclusion of his mention is good:
While the blood, the tie choke and the “****” tweet were not WWE’s idea, this mostly likely was. It’s OK to be shocking and (supposedly) cutting-edge as long as it’s not a wrestler taking the initiative to up his cred.
WWE’s PC and PG value system frowns upon blood, choking people, funny tweets with profanity… but “hey, go ahead and mention someone who’s passed away to fabricate personal animosity in a make-believe feud.”
2. It shows how little they have to offer creatively.
Save for a stellar Wrestlemania, Summerslam and NXT Takeovers, WWE’s creativity is, arguably, at its lowest since 1995-1996’s “all our wrestlers have a profession” approach.
In 2015, the weekly shows blend into each other. Storylines, when existing, are mostly lazy. Matches are repeated ad nauseam. Very few wrestlers clearly have well-defined characters in a world that, again, professes to be entertainment which, in most of its greatest forms, tends to be character-driven.
Instead of Austin vs. McMahon, Angle vs. Eddie, Bryan vs. Punk, WWE is bringing us a steady diet of Ziggler/Lana/Rusev/Summer, while strongly believing putting 9 women in 3 groups of 3 that fight every week a Divas Revolution makes.
Not to mention that while WWE has the theoretical monopoly of the business, its ego remains at the “Monday Night War” level, and Sting has to pay admission upon entry, by putting over the authority figure of the show in his debut match, while said authority figure uses the momentum he gained from the win for… nothing.
This is arguably the best roster WWE has had in years. It includes Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, The New Day, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, so many others and a swarm of female talent the WWE has never seen before.
Awaiting said roster is – again – arguably, the least creative WWE management in decades. The ones who booked Sheamus vs. Orton 500 times, thought Taker should lose the Streak without properly setting it up in the story, and let Ziggler/Lana/Rusev/Summer continue forever, only to shut it down out of nowhere because TMZ reported on Lana and Rusev’s getting hitched.
WWE has shown an increasing difficulty in making its fans care consistently about the product they’re putting out (save for NXT), which is partly due to its exceedingly diverse crowd (in terms of age groups), but mainly because of years of storytelling that just weren’t, for the most part, engaging.
So, when you mention Reid Flair in a storyline, it’s only the latest in a series of innefective “creative” attempts to “shake things up”. Here’s why:
We can argue about the percentage of the live and televised audience who understood the reference, but it was probably quite minute. Which means you’re banking on a personal escalation of a feud through a reference about 5 to 10% of your audience will understand.
It was made to escalate a feud where Paige is the backstabbing ex-BFF who needs to get her ass kicked. If the story had been well told, that’s all you’d really need (see “Seth Rollins & The Shield”). These two angles should have either been used to ignite different feuds, or re-ignite the feud once its original approach (backstabbing stable member) runs its course.
Finally, just being blunt: if you need to bring in legit dead relatives to get momentum on a feud, I have no idea what you’re doing in the storytelling business.
It’s a hit-and-miss business, and right now I’m hard-pressed to find a mark on the dartboard.
3. Oh and about that unwritten rule of “if the family approved, it’s fine”… 
Elizabeth and Flair have expressed their dislike for the use of Reid's death to elevate an angle.
) The Dark Force Awakens! Here comes Darth Burius!
, typical Jobber response when he knows he's in the wrong but that pea sized brain can't make sense of things. What can I say you get life itself wrong 
and he's coming up with his own theories to cause confusion surrounding the prediction competition when he has no proof of what greenRoars 1 , Talha 2 or me 3 said or didn't say 
you are getting Taker in PPV, no complain 
