After the most recent episode of “WWE SmackDown,” I criticized Alexa Bliss for what I called a “juvenile” promo against the WarGames team of Nia Jax, Lash Legend, Asuka, and Kairi Sane. I won’t flatter myself: I don’t think she read my piece. I do like to think, however, that we connected brainwaves all the same, because Bliss did a complete 180 on her promo game, and knocked it out of the park with her Monday night tirade on Charlotte Flair.
Bliss has been stuck playing nice on the mic, and while she’s typically good enough to stay relevant and on top of her promo game either way, she’s lost a little bit of bite. It’s not entirely her fault; most of her S-tier promo work has been done during her “Goddess” heel era, where she verbally ran through everybody in the women’s division, from Bayley to Mickie James. Such scathing tirades are a bit unbecoming of a Bliss who is currently playing nice. Luckily for us, Bliss had plenty of reason to not be such a graceful, levelheaded version of herself after Flair abandoned her, Rhea Ripley, and IYO SKY to the snapping jaws of the heel Women’s WarGames team. She looked directly into the camera, cold and unyielding, tore into Flair, pointing out “The Queen’s” superficial social media presence, her hypocritical reasoning for abandoning their WarGames team, and Flair’s inconsistent reputation with the women in the back. Bliss did not hold back. Her speech quickened, her tone sharpened, and she glowered at the camera as she spat out truthful, scathing statement after truthful, scathing statement.
The best part of it all? Bliss didn’t have to be petty in order to make her point heard. In her iconic “Goddess-“era promos, it wasn’t uncommon for Bliss to make immature remarks about appearances, embarrassing career moments, or deeply personal low-blows. The promo she cut on Flair during Monday’s “WWE Raw,” however, was scathing, but not petty. It was deeply personal, but not catty. Bliss had all of the anger and rage to cut a great promo, but she had none of her historic spiteful edge that might have tarnished her babyface campaign. It might seem like a trivial thing, but any worker less talented on the mic would have toed into heel territory as passion and hurt took over. Bliss did nothing of the sort. She kept things classy, but intense.
I have my reservations about Flair’s flip-flopping WarGames status, but if a Flair/Bliss feud post-WarGames is going to keep supplying us with these Bliss promos, I can get behind it. I was so sad to criticize Bliss in my last piece on her, but now? My GOAT is so back.
Written by Angeline Phu