One of the most baffling booking decisions in recent memory came this past Monday night on Raw when Charlotte, making her main roster debut (though it was a one shot deal), was beaten by Natalya just days before she defends the NXT women's championship at Takeover 3: R Evolution.
This was met with outrage in some circles, and general apathy in others. Some wondered if the idea was to kick start a main roster program with Nattie that would commence at a later date and if that's the case, then it would be acceptable.
Well, Triple H held a conference call with media today for the NXT special this Thursday and the very first question he was asked was why Charlotte vs. Natalya didn't get much time and why one of the most promising prospects in NXT did the job.
His answer:
"One of the difficult things about live programming is it's live and times are crunched, times are tweaked. Having been in a million different things going on that night, I can't speak to the exact amount of time that they were given or had. But the show is in flux, it's live. I'm sure they were, just having seen what happened that night, I know they were given more time than that but by the time they get there things go over, things get crunched, we're trying to... you know, we have a lot of responsibilities to make within that show of commercials, and it's not just... we can't just throw things on the air and they are what they are. Would we have preferred to give them more time? Hell, I would have loved to have given them the time I gave them at the NXT special and be able to showcase what they do.
"As far as the decision of who went over, Nattie or Charlotte or anything like that, those decisions are heavily debated and made. It is what it is. At the end of the day, for me, it's about promotion. When you look at what they have done in NXT and every place else, the amount of people that see them there compared to the amount of people that will see them on Monday Night Raw with the whole world watching... the difference is mind boggling. Just for them to be exposed in that way is massive. It isn't just to give Charlotte... a lot of people were like 'oh, it's her debut' and all those things. Well, it was, in some way, but it's not like she's going to be on there again next week and by the time she is back on Raw and ready to be competing on Raw on a regular basis and performing on Raw, you'll see a different Charlotte and you'll see her presented in a different way. It was really just exposure. As far as what the outcome was, that could be debated. But it is what it is. ... You can go back and pick apart bits and pieces of it all but when you overall look at it in the big plan six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, whenever it is, no one is going to be like 'yeah, but they killed her on her debut.' The bigger picture is involved."
So, essentially, he wanted to give them more time but couldn't and her losing is no big deal because she's not being called up just yet and by the time she will be you will have forgotten about it anyway. There's at least an argument to be made that Charlotte should have lost if she's not being called up anytime soon, but even if that's the case it makes very little sense to beat her just days before a title defense.
At least she looked strong before she was rolled up and pinned, right?
Still, the idea that it was all about promotion doesn't hold up well when you consider what happened. "Hey, here's this awesome women's champion from NXT! Oh, she just got beat. Oh well, make sure you tune in Thursday to watch her defend her title!"
Yeah, okay.