Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey are top WWE stars, but who is more needed?
Earlier this year, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey engaged in a rivalry that dominated the airwaves and led to two high-profile premium-live-event matches (WrestleMania 38 and WrestleMania Backlash).
They split those matches, with Rousey emerging from the feud with the SmackDown Women's Championship.
But which one is more valuable and needed by WWE right now?
When taking personal preference out of the question, the answer may be surprising.
Charlotte Flair is a generational talent whose success is unparalleled by any woman on the WWE roster.
A 13-time world champion and two-time NXT champion, she has been to the pinnacle of women's wrestling and delivered some of the best in-ring work of her generation against every major star the company has had to offer.
She can be relied upon to enhance the significance of any storyline, match or angle based on her reputation alone, not to mention what she brings between the ropes. She has been booked to such a degree that fans buy into her as the best, and anyone selected to beat her is instantly thought to be a big deal.
Sure, she is pushed too strongly at times, and fans can grow tired of watching her win. But as a result of WWE Creative's devotion to the second-generation star, she has achieved credibility and legitimacy in the world of professional wrestling that makes her an undeniable asset in helping to get others over.
As important as it is to have someone who can be utilized to help make stars, either by losing to them or pulling them to their level, today's wrestling fan appreciates and demands a certain level of in-ring work, and Flair has it in spades.
Look no further than her battles with Becky Lynch in 2018, her classic with Trish Stratus at SummerSlam 2019, any number of the NXT matches with her fellow Four Horsewomen that helped bring about the Women's Revolution, or her main roster series with Sasha Banks as evidence of Flair's significance to the overall quality of the ring work in WWE's women's division.
Even her WrestleMania Backlash "I Quit" Match against Ronda Rousey can be lumped into that collection.
Despite fan frustration with what can be considered overexposure, Flair is a great professional wrestler, and that is as important, if not more so, than her star power or what she brings to the women she works with.
The appeal of Ronda Rousey is and always has been her star power and credibility.
An entire generation of fans watched her establish herself as one of the best, most influential mixed martial artists of all time en route to induction into the UFC Hall of Fame. Her addition to the WWE women's division in 2018 instantly provided the name attraction it needed to help elevate it following the progress forged by the women's revolution.
Arguably, even with Flair and Becky Lynch's star power, women would not have main-evented WrestleMania 35 had it not been for Rousey's name-value being omnipresent in that historic Triple Threat match.
She may not be as red-hot as she was, and certain creative issues have plagued her most recent run, but she is still over with fans, credible and can elevate any opponent simply by selling for them.
Is she a picture-perfect pro wrestler? No. She does not have the level of training the women around her do, and she clearly becomes lost at points. She has been open about her shortcomings.
"Well, remembering it is hard, I'm not like a seasoned veteran or anything like that," she told The Wives of Wrestling podcast (h/t WrestlingInc.com). "This past 'Mania, I was like, 'I don't have this down, at all.' We were about to go out there and I'm like, 'Uh, I don't know all this match yet.' But all the parts where I wasn't sure what was next was a part where I could get a cue or something from somebody else."
"I am very much dependent on who else I am in there with to make the match itself and to guide me when I am out there. I'm like a smoke-and-mirrors bitch. I've only had a year-and-a-half of experience, and people forget that a lot."
Rousey is not going to go into the ring and will anyone to a five-star match in the way Flair might, but she is still going to elevate them in a similar way to what The Queen does because beating a legend still means something, mostly because it is not something that has been done repeatedly to the point that the effect wears off.
Look at Liv Morgan and what it meant to her to be able to beat Rousey, even if the execution was not always perfect. She is a bigger star now than she was before and a focal point of SmackDown creative efforts.
That may not have happened without the headline-making wins over someone with the star power of Rowdy.
On the surface, this felt like an easy argument to make.
In an era in which diehard fans demand a certain quality of in-ring work, Flair is the obvious answer. After all, those fans make up the base of any viewership and go a long way in determining who succeeds and who does not.
Upon diving deeper into the argument, though, it becomes apparent that Rousey is the choice.
She may not be a polished in-ring worker, but there is no denying what she has done to help create stars for WWE during her relatively brief run with the promotion.
Lynch discovered her "The Man" persona, but it was in going toe-to-toe verbally and physically with Rousey that helped enhance and pull it to the main-event level. Morgan was a popular competitor among that aforementioned diehard fanbase, but by working with Rousey, she achieved a level of credibility that allowed WWE to book one of the marquee matches of Extreme Rules around their feud.
Can Flair claim to have created as many stars?
Through little fault of her own, it is difficult to argue that anyone has actually emerged from a feud with The Queen better than they entered. Was Carmella enhanced by working with Flair? How about Dana Brooke? Nikki Cross?
Flair is a great, great professional wrestler. If she walked away from the ring tomorrow, she would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer whose contributions to the legitimization of women's wrestling on a grand scale are undeniable.
But Rousey is an invaluable asset because there are women on the WWE roster who can become headline stars strictly by working a program with her. Do they have to win in the end? Not necessarily, but they are perceived as more important and higher profile, and that is something no five-star match can make up for.
