Can Charlotte forge her own legacy, sans Ric Flair?

Charlotte is on the cusp of winning the Divas title

It’s the question I am sure Charlotte has been asked a million times growing up.

What’s it like to be Ric Flair’s daughter?

The comparisons, although they are way off, are still going to be made. When a professional wrestler passes his (or her) legacy onto their children, the experts are going to look for similarities, find weaknesses and boast about strengths.

The woman who grew up Ashley Fliehr doesn’t necessarily have the weight of the world on her shoulders, but a few million wrestling fans are hoping she can not only capture the WWE Divas Title from Nikki Bella, but she can also create a buzz again in a hole that has been dug by WWE management.

Bad booking, poor talent and no direction will do that – especially when the biggest wrestling promotion in the world has watched other competitors do it better in recent years. Remember Mickie James and Gail Kim no longer call Stamford, CT home and have jumped ship to TNA where they have thrived.

Given the fact the Divas have been “pushed” of late by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley – which has so far failed – there needs to be a common ground where the old guard of Nikki and Brie Bella step aside and let the former NXT Champion, and her cohorts, find success.

The new breed is a lot more popular with the current generation of fans. WWE booking really has not tapped into the obvious connection with a younger, hipper core of fans and appealed to female fans as well, just yet.

It’s hard enough being the son of a wrestling superstar. Ted DiBiase, Jr. failed following his father Ted Sr. into the ring. Cody and Dustin Rhodes are more talented, but neither would unseat “The American Dream.” Natalya has been a success in WWE amongst the females, but has she been as successful as her father, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart? And Curtis Axel, the son of Curt Hennig and grandson of Larry “The Axe” Hennig, is all but through in the ring.

There are exceptions to the rule. The Rock has been more successful than his father, Rocky Johnson, or his grandfather Peter Maivia. Randy Orton has exceeded the success of his father Bob Orton, Jr. Barry Windham was ultra-popular and a bigger star than his father, Blackjack Mulligan. And when you look back, Fritz Von Erich was a successful heel, but his sons, Kevin and Kerry Von Erich were successful champions in their own right.

It’s hard to measure what Charlotte’s appearance in a WWE ring means right now. The time is right and the season is ripe for a woman to make an impact in the company like Lita and Trish Stratus and to a smaller extent, Wendi Richter in the onset of Hulkamania. Charlotte has the chance to be this generation’s Lita and has competitors like Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Paige and Bayley to help put her over.

All four have a chance to claim long-term success in the promotion but make no mistake it is Charlotte, WWE will lean on to make that happen. Now that she is the No. 1 contender for the Diva’s belt that Nikki Bella owns, it will a political battle to see if they put the neophyte over and start a Charlotte revolution – a short time before Bella would overtake AJ Lee as the longest tenured Diva’s Champion – or will holding a grudge push her development back to make a statement.

Either way, the Charlotte era is going to begin, like it or not. It may not be as successful as Ric Flair’s, but whose career is. Just knowing she comes from the Flair family tree is enough right now to take a long hard look at what second generation women’s wrestling is really all about.

Woooo!