WWE Clash of Champions 2017: Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya full match preview

Some matches are more important than any build you could give them.

This match is not one of them.

Made almost as an afterthought in a WWE.com exclusive video it’s really just your standard perfunctory championship rematch granted the former champion...

...well, except for one thing that raises a bit of intrigue. You see, this isn't the contractually-mandated rematch, that happened on SmackDown TV the week after Charlotte Flair won the title in the first place. Indeed, the fact that that match happened so quickly was reason enough to assume the feud was over...

And then the Riott Squad changed everything

They hit the scene mid-match, battered champion and challenger alike, gave Natalya a disqualification victory and, in the process, a reason for SmackDown management to grant her one more match for the title.

But as is clear to literally anyone has ever watched wrestling for at least two consecutive months, you can’t just do a straight rematch after something that and expect history to not repeat itself. So, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan made his move and made it a lumberjack match, with the entire rest of the SmackDown women’s division at ringside as lumberjacks.

Which changes everything for the Riott Squad

Because the Riott Squad are not well-liked by the rest of the women’s division. In the nearly four weeks since their debut, they’ve wreaked havoc using That Damned Numbers Game in the tradition of all the great stables, injuring Becky Lynch so hard she left to join the Marines in a movie and taking Naomi out for weeks. But at long last the tide has turned, and with Naomi’s return, the women of SmackDown, even Tamina, Lana, and Carmella, who usually place their own interests first, have lined up against them.

So, conceivably, as a historical first, this could be a lumberjack match where some of the lumberjacks are more concerned with beating the other lumberjacks up than they are returning wayward active combatants to the ring. Who knows, maybe you could even end up with a situation where they run the Riott Squad off and leave Charlotte and Natalya to have a regular singles match in peace!

And if they do, that’s bad news for Natalya, because in the fifteen times she and Charlotte have met one-on-one, she’s only won by pinfall or submission once, with a rollup in 2014 when Flair was still primarily performing on NXT and was just brought to the main roster for a one-night showcase. Every other time Neidhart has gained a victory over Flair, it’s been by disqualification. A tough row to hoe for the self-proclaimed Best There Is, Best There Was, and Best There Ever Will Be!

Will the Queen carry on her winning ways or will the disruption of the lumberjacks be enough for Natalya to slip one through?