Cup of coffee in the big time: Why add a third wheel to Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey?

Ronda Rousey’s verbal fumbles aside, Monday Night Raw was as electric as it has been in a long time as Rousey stood in front of Becky Lynch as “The Man” declared her intention to challenge for the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania.

Rousey vs. Lynch is a moment fans have been wanting for months, coming close only to have an errant Nia Jax punch derail the plans and lead Charlotte Flair to face Rousey at Survivor Series.

And Flair vs. Rousey had plenty of electricity, getting Flair over with the fans again after they’d turned hard against her after WWE’s attempt to frame her as the face in her rivalry with Lynch.

After Survivor Series, the three-way between the women at WrestleMania seemed logical enough — and the fact it set women up to headline the biggest wrestling show on Earth made it even better.

But time passes and Flair, while always a top-tier superstar, feels unnecessary to the WrestleMania equation now.

Why then, is the rumored plan to still insert “The Queen” into the match?

It feels all but impossible for a three-way to have the same “WrestleMania moment” magic as Rousey and Lynch staring each other eye-to-eye moments before the bell rings to get the action underway.

Bungling that just to insert Flair out of some inability to get away from her as “the woman who main events” seems like promotional malpractice.

The Match situations don’t come along very often. Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey is The Match. The reactions to every interaction make that clear.

Just as there was no need to stick a third man in the ring when The Rock faced off with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18, there’s no need to stick a third party in the ring when Rousey and Lynch face off at WrestleMania 35.

No disrespect to Charlotte Flair, but nobody likes a third wheel.

• Daniel Bryan’s beautiful hemp belt and Samoa Joe’s vicious words were a big boost to a fairly flat edition of SmackDown Live. Check out our recap and reactions.
• There’s also video highlights of things like R-Truth capturing the United States Championship.
• We also have a preview of tonight’s edition of NXT.
• Dean Ambrose’s plans to leave WWE after WrestleMania were confirmed by the promotion, and there’s talk he turned down a lot of money to stay.
• We have some interesting analysis of the time between entrants for the Women’s Royal Rumble as well as the Men’s Royal Rumble.
• That Four Horsewomen vs. Four Horsewomen match is probably going to happen eventually.
• Bray Wyatt is being his usual weird self on Twitter, but giving some hope for a return in the near future.
• Finally, the true debate: did Becky Lynch sucker punch Charlotte Flair?

It’s so damn cold in the midwest. No one is safe.