What if Charlotte Flair beats Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series?

WWE and its fans have traveled a strange road on the way to this year’s Survivor Series. For the men’s world champion vs. world champion branded match, we had two new champions crowned within three weeks of the event—one just five days before the show, complete with a shocking heel turn.

Meanwhile, for the women’s champion vs. champion match, Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch looked set in stone, including a white-hot angle to close out the go home episode of Raw. However, Lynch suffered a concussion in that climactic brawl and got pulled from arguably the biggest match of her career to date.

With Lynch out, Charlotte Flair has positioned to battle Rousey in a first-time match that many anticipated WWE would save for WrestleMania. Rousey remains the favorite to win the match—and probably even more so now given the impromptu nature of it. But what if Flair were to win?

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5. Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen

A feud between two sets of Horsewomen may be on its way.

While Charlotte Flair is clearly a company favorite and one of the most talented women on the WWE roster, a simple fact remains—there is little to no chance WWE would book her to beat Ronda Rousey cleanly.

Between WWE keeping the Baddest Woman on the Planet largely protected as a special talent, and the real-life credibility issue of it still being hard to believe anyone from WWE could take on the former UFC champ, Flair simply isn’t going to get the job straight up, or at least not at this point in time.

Outside interference could pave the way for a Flair victory, though, and there are built-in mechanisms for WWE to make this happen. Becky Lynch can’t wrestle this Sunday but would easily make sense as an interloper in this match.

Moreover, Sasha Banks and Bayley haven’t been booked for the show and could easily become factors in supporting their fellow Horsewoman of NXT, with an easy enough story about loyalty among friends, and them being jealous of the attention and opportunities Rousey has garnered on Raw.

If the Horsewomen of NXT get involved, it only stands to reason that Rousey’s Four Horsewomen of MMA (ironically, three of whom are currently in NXT themselves) would have her back. A program between these two sides has been rumored since their confrontations during the original Mae Young Classic. While a four on four battle would have made sense for Survivor Series itself, it’s nonetheless an intriguing storyline WWE could get rolling now.

#4 A return match at WrestleMania

WrestleMania would be the only stage befitting the rematch.

If Ronda Rousey beats Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series, it’s possible but unlikely that WWE could justify having the two square off again at WrestleMania 35. After all, Rousey is the favorite going in, so beating up the same challenger she already turned back wouldn’t necessarily have much appeal.

However, if Flair were to score the upset win, either by legitimate means or with outside interference, it may well set up Rousey to go hunting for revenge. It’s the story UFC probably wanted to tell after Holly Holm upset Rousey, of Rousey coming back to win back her title and her pride, except not only did Holm lose the title in the interim, but Rousey wound up losing her first fight back.

Under the controlled environment of WWE, we could see a similar story play out after all, with or without a title actually on the line in this scenario.

#3 Charlotte Flair wins a title soon

Charlotte Flair may be destined for another title reign sooner than later.

Charlotte Flair is the kind of talent who always has been and, for the foreseeable future, always will be in the title hunt to some extent during her WWE tenure. If Becky Lynch ends up having to relinquish her title, Flair is the most likely candidate to pick it up. If Lynch perseveres, and she doesn’t find herself newly allied with Flair, we can peg Flair as a likely challenger sooner than later.

If WWE were to go so far as to put Flair over Rousey at Survivor Series, though, we have to assume that WWE means to fast-track her back to the gold. Maybe that’s on SmackDown. Maybe that’s on Raw, particularly if we're to get some sort of swerve that allowed Flair to beat Ronda Rousey for her title at Survivor Series.

While that latter scenario may seem out of left field, WWE has been playing fast and loose with face and heel turns lately, with authority figures stretching the bounds of their purview. If Shane McMahon could insert himself into the World Cup finals, it’s not totally out of the question that he or Paige could make Rousey vs. Flair a title match, or at least goad Rousey into offering to defend her belt.

#2 Ronda Rousey wins the Royal Rumble

Ronda Rousey could raise the stakes of this rivalry with a Rumble victory.

Survivor Series 2017 saw Charlotte Flair make Alexa Bliss tap out in the inter-brand match between women’s champions. While WWE built a small story going into the match, there wasn’t a great deal of time to because Flair only won her title shortly before the PPV. Moreover, it was treated as a one-off in the spirit of committing to the brand split, and we never got any real follow up angle or rematch.

If Ronda Rousey were to lose to Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series, one thing is for absolute certain: that is not the end of the story.

Rousey will go looking for revenge against Flair, which could mean either or Flair transitioning to the opposite brand to make it happen, or it could mean another inter-brand match which, given WWE’s current structure, would have to be reserved for a big-time show. WrestleMania could be that show.

WWE has emphasized that Survivor Series is the only event in which Raw stars wrestle SmackDown stars. However, another natural conduit WWE already has the infrastructure for is a history of Royal Rumble winners hopping brands to challenge the champion of their choosing. Rousey could feasibly win the Rumble as a route to get at Flair on SmackDown, interestingly enough following a path that Asuka already established last year, to challenge for the blue brand’s title, and more specifically to challenge Flair.

#1 Becky Lynch loses to Ronda Rousey

Becky Lynch has been on a roll, but might be a casualty if WWE focuses on Flair vs. Rousey.

Ronda Rousey has been one of WWE’s best-protected stars in recent years. In her first half year, she hasn’t lost a single match, and the only encounter she didn’t win was on account of a Money in the Bank cash-in from Alexa Bliss.

Becky Lynch is white hot now off of her thrilling turn on Charlotte Flair and strong follow up matches against The Queen, not to mention her electric go home angle on Raw to build to Survivor Series. Given that momentum, we have to suspect she will still have the opportunity to work Rousey in a high profile match at one time or another.

However, if Rousey has already suffered her first one on one loss to Flair, it’s unlikely she’ll be losing again any time soon. That means that Lynch stands little to no chance of beating The Baddest Woman on the Planet, though, to be fair, that likely wasn’t in the cards for the Irish Lass Kicker anyway.