WWE Unreal Review: “Episode 3: Worth The Wait”

It’s time for the third of five episodes of WWE Unreal. If you’d like to catch up on the other episodes, I have them here for you. Just for you!

Episode description: “As Chelsea Green gets the title shot of her dreams, Charlotte Flair returns from injury at last. Bianca Belair seals her fate in the Elimination Chamber.”

Bianca Belair is braiding her hair. Bianca Nicole Blair Crawford, WWE Superstar, introduces herself and tells us why she calls herself the EST of WWE. “I’m just the best at what I do.” She started wearing the braid because nobody else was doing it, and her husband Montez Ford told her to keep it because it’s her. We watch her use the braid as a weapon. She says there are no special sound effects to it and it’s real.

Stephanie McMahon tells us how hard it is to make it to the top, but you especially can’t not watch the women. Paul Levesque, WWE Chief Content Officer, says the women are special and 40% of their audience are women. There’s only so much room to make everything a feature and it’s hard to do.

Florida. Chelsea Green, WWE Superstar, arrives hoem and pets her pups. With wrestling you have to live day-to-day and you don’t always get what you want or deserve, you get what you get. “But it’s fucking annoying.” She goes through the names she’s gone through, leading up to her real name now. She always wanted to be a diva, thinking it represents everything she loved – beauty and sparkles. She tries to never wear a set of gear twice. The skirts are her favorite part – “a fun girl quality.” She says her character is a Karen and her role is to provide entertainment as comedic relief and selling for the girls. “For someone to win, somebody else has to lose. Guess what? I’ll be the loser if that means I get booked every day. Want me to pour salsa and cake on my head? Say less. We’re getting paid a lot of money to look like assholes, I’m okay with that.”

Of course, she says, they have goals to be a champion. She has a WrestleMania outfit ready with her face all over it. They have a live event in Vancouver and she’s invited all her friends and family, but she’s still trying to get booked.

Vancouver, Canada. We’re back at Survivor Series weekend. “Nobody tells you when you’re not on.” She bought fifteen tickets, and she’s had to tell her friends and family that she’s not on the show. She calls it upsetting, frustrated but also showbiz, baby. Being able to stay with her family takes the sting away from not being booked. “Every time I get a little nugget of hope, something happens.” We look back at her injuries in 2019 and 2020, breaking her arm twice on live television. She was released and texted Triple H to ask for her job back and she got it. We see her watching Survivor Series from a box and remembers wrestling isn’t a spot, you don’t just score more goals and become a captain. She hopes to be deemed worthy of a championship. Stephanie tells us how hard Chelsea has worked, and fans have been demanding for the women to have more titles.

Long Island, New York. Saturday Night’s Main Event. HHH says Chelsea is a character you can have do about anything and the new U.S. Title gives the women something else to care about. She harasses Michael Cole at ringside to find out if she’s winning or losing. “I will never ever say no, and because of that is why I’m in the running to become the next U.S. Champion.” She discusses the match with Shane Helms, Producer. She practices doing a legdrop off the top, something she’s never done before, and pees herself a little when she tries it. She says the legdrop feels weird and isn’t her finish and fights for her finisher instead “because I never win.” She questions how she could use someone else’s move in her big moment in history. Tessa Green, Chelsea’s Sister gives her a hug and they do little excited girly screams. Chelsea is wearing the Mania gear. Michaels Hayes, WWE Hall of Famer tells her how much she deserves it.

Chelsea Green vs Michin, Inaugural Women’s U.S. Title. She does indeed use her finisher and wins the first Women’s U.S. Title. Stephanie McMahon tells someone how happy she is for her. Chelsea comes back to Gorilla and hugs Cody Rhodes, Michael Hayes, and others. HHH quotes Maya Angelou and notes that whatever Chelsea is doing on screen is captivating people. “When you find somebody that gets that feel, it’s the right time.” Rhea Ripley, WWE Superstar watches as they put on Chelsea’s sideplates. “Before this moment, I haven’t been that excited about moments in my career.” She thinks over all she’s been through and knew this was her moment.

Birmingham, Alabama. January 2024. Ashley Elizabeth Fliehr, WWE Superstar talks with a doctor about her injury. As Charlotte Flair, she’s visited by her dad Ric Flair, WWE Hall of Famer. She remembers him taking her to shows and her brother Reid talking her into it. He died a year into her development. She feels like the expectation of Charlotte is so big that it even makes her nervous. “You really can’t make any mistakes.”

We go over her injuries and she has been blaming herself for missing WrestleMania. Not being there at 40 after being at so many of them makes her tear up.

WWE Headquarters, Stamford. Royal Rumble planning meeting. One suggests getting entrant 29 and doing a double elimination and number 30 automatically winning: Chelsea Green. Trips says we’ll circle back.

Royal Rumble. 4 Hours to Showtime. Charlotte says there is nothing like this in life. She has missed the anticipation and adrenaline and runs up to give crew members hugs. “You always want to leave everything you have out there.” She feels pressure in reintroducing herself. Tiffany Stratton, WWE Superstar talks to her and about how they haven’t even been in the same vicinity since she was called up and wishes her luck. “I’m Ric Flair’s daughter. Hell yeah, I’m the top girl.”

90 Minutes to Showtime. Chelsea is getting styled and is going into the Rumble looking like a hot mess, having gotten her ass kicked by Michin the night before on SmackDown. Bianca Belair is nervous and always feels like there isn’t enough time backstage. “One day, Bianca Belair will be fully prepared but today will not be that day.” Longtime followers will know that she will never have her gear ready in time.

Rumble time. Lyra Valkyria has a wardrobe malfunction, and the refs help. Chelsea prances out and we get the cool editing we had in the previous episode, this time on Chelsea trying to toss people out and succeeding with B-Fab and getting chants. Bianca is out at #10. Chelsea takes the comedic accidental elimination at the hands of Piper Niven. Charlotte comes out to a big ovation. The music mixing in this segment? Fantastic.

Highlights of Charlotte kicking ass. Nia eliminates a huge chunk of people, Charlotte eliminates Nia Jax and then Roxanne Perez to win the Rumble. She thanks Triple H backstage. Chelsea tells us the adrenaline was insane and she thinks they chanted her name at one point, which is every wrestler’s dream. The women cheer on Charlotte in the back. “Tonight is the beginning of I hope the best chapter of my career.”

Bianca explains that Elimination Chamber is the next chance and explains the match. She makes her own gear backstage and always takes it as a point of pride. Montez Ford, WWE Superstar tells her how great she looks and she discusses their love story, which was chronicled in Love & WWE, which is sadly not streaming anywhere thanks to the WWE/Hulu deal ending. Michael Hayes talks about how she has done it all and becomes the connection to Jade Cargill. Jade had a real-life injury, so you had to figure out what to do. They had to create a mystery of who attacked Jade and she and Naomi became tag partners. We build up the story of it probably being Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, but Hayes says the best choice was the once closest to her – Naomi.

The creative team got the all-clear for Jade’s injury and they came up with revealing it at Elimination Chamber. We go to Toronto and Elimination Chamber. Triple H tells Jade to kick ass but don’t rush it – “control your shit.” The girls do a group prayer, and the Chamber begins. Naomi and Liv start the match and Jade’s music hits. Jade attacks Naomi in a wild moment and Bianca gives the acting performance of a lifetime locked in her pod, screaming and crying. HHH tells Jade “That was fucking awesome” and we keep focusing on Bianca, an emotional wreck. Bianca whips Liv and gets the pin, punching her ticket to Mania. Hell of a match if you haven’t watched it.

HHH tells her that it was fucking amazing as well and that her emotions were perfectly during the attack. Triple H to Shane Helms: “When you go down to the PC, there are five there’s fucking five women that are great for every guy. It’s like they come and in six months later, they’re really fucking good.” “They’re just way smarter than us.” Truth. And for those that have tried to keep up with NXT in the last year, you know how true this is. There is an absolute blessing of women down there ready or near ready to go. Like really, they have about the next decade of women’s main eventers built up down there already.

Rhea tells Bianca how great the hair whip sounded. Bianca shows off her jacket and tore her boots in the match. She needs an adult beverage, and Rhea recommends some water first. Stephanie says they’re always trying to evolve their brand and company, and their women are a huge part of that. Bianca says the goal is to main event WrestleMania. “I wanna go and be undefeated at WrestleMania.” End scene.

I had at least a dozen people tell me on social media that I would love this episode, and they were right. Of course they were, it was the women’s episode. I do like that a lot of this episode focused on a woman that isn’t necessarily the main draw in Chelsea. If you weren’t a fan of Chelsea before this episode (shame on you), you probably are after. Bianca is always a good person to talk about, and the Charlotte part is interesting considering the twists that things have taken after. I highly recommend this one and not just because it’s all about the women, but because it is a very compelling hour of television.