Anyone who knows me as a wrestling fan knows that my favorite wrestlers of the modern era are Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair. From like 2015 to 2019 half the stuff I wrote here and most of the wrestling articles had something to do with Roman Reigns. I’ve only written a few pieces about Charlotte, and they’ve usually been when something bad happened and I didn’t keep them in perpetuity. Well, now it’s time for another one. This was supposed to be a nicer piece with only some factual rebuttals to some things, but given the elephant in the room I’ll start with that.
Assuming that the reports about the segment going way off script were true, then from where I’m sitting Tiffany was extremely unprofessional and out of bounds. Going off script happens, that’s not the problem. Ad libbing is a thing, folks. We normally salute people who can ad lib during a promo. As long as you stay in character and in the story it’s not a big deal. Bringing in personal, real life things without permission, that have nothing to do with the storyline or the characters in them is wrong, full stop. If you’re mad that she got the better of you in a promo segment where she did not break character or go outside of kayfabe, and your response is to go low and take shots at the personal life at the woman playing the character then that’s disgusting, period. And that’s exactly what those were, personal shots. Charlotte Flair the character has no marital history to speak of, Ashley Fliehr of course does.
Did Charlotte get rattled by the crowd? Yes. They booed her louder than I think she’s been booed in a long time and they didn’t let her speak. She’s been booed before but never like that. I’d gather that she wasn’t expecting it, because quite frankly it’s never happened to her like that. Even when she was feuding with Becky in 2018/2019, the crowds let her speak. So when they didn’t do that here, then yeah it was probably a shock. If I were advising her I’d tell her to expect it from here on out and adjust accordingly. You can question as to why they went that hard on her – she didn’t burn Tiffany’s house down or steal her man or betray her some kind of way, she got the better of her in a previous promo segment. If you’re saying it’s because of her booking over her career, then please stop. If that was the case then y’all wouldn’t add on all the personal digs about her appearance and her marriages and you wouldn’t add on a bunch of accusations that no one can seem to verify from anyone else involved (more on that later).
If this whole thing is a big work, and is revealed as such, then I’ll retract everything I just said. But so long as what we know is what we currently know then I’ll stand by everything above. I don’t assume that everything is a work, that’s a cover that people use lots of times to justify all kinds of bs.
Now if you’re gonna sit here and say that Charlotte was trying to bury Tiffany…..just stop it already. Please stop using wrestling insider terms that you don’t know the meaning of. Charlotte Flair the character would absolutely talk over her adversary and discredit them. She’s done it before! Hell, watch the segment again here.
Please note Tiffany interrupted Charlotte a couple of times herself; it wasn’t one sided at all. But in addition to that, Charlotte has interrupted people during promo exchanges before; it’s literally part of her character when she’s working heel. She interrupted Lita duing a promo segment once. Lita! Was she trying to bury Lita? I sincerely doubt it. So she can interrupt a Hall of Famer, but is supposed to play nice with Tiffany? Really? Is that what you’re saying here? Charlotte Flair the character is rude and condescending; Ashley Fliehr is not Charlotte Flair. Charlotte doing that to Tiffany in a promo segment doesn’t mean that Ashley Fleihr is out to undermine Jessica Woynilko, but that’s the way a lot of y’all are taking it. Charlotte has come out on both sides of promo exchanges, and when she lost one it didn’t mean her opponent was trying to bury her. Like here for example – Bianca went on a rhetorical run here and at no point was it a burial
Also note that Bianca got the better of her without resorting to personal insults that are totally unrelated to what the characters are doing on the television show. I’m sorry but if you have to jump out of your TV character and lob insults based on sad events from somebody’s real life, that were not in the script, then you’re not very good at this thing and you don’t deserve any sympathy for coming up on the short end of a promo segment where the woman who got the better of you stayed entirely in character and in storyline the whole time.
So please, stop conflating kayfabe with real life here. And for the ‘controversy and personal issues make money’ folks…..really? When? Shawn Michaels saying ‘Sunny Days’ about Bret Hart did not sell a single ticket or get one pay per view buy, and the only match it led to was the Montreal Screwjob. It did make things almost untenable for months to the point where they could barely work together. Did the Edge/Matt Hardy/Lita stuff sell any more tickets or PPVs buys? Not really. (You can go look up the attendance numbers and TV ratings for the shows where they faced each other, they weren’t any different from the other shows WWE aired that year) I challenge you to find me one instance where invoking someone’s personal life into a story actually made anyone more money. Internet buzz does not equal sales and I don’t think anyone was convinced to buy a ticket to Vegas or get a Peacock subscription off of that segment between Charlotte and Tiffany.
Now let me get on to what I was originally gonna talk about here….
Would she have 14 World Championships if her Dad wasn’t Ric Flair?
Of course not! Three of Ric’s kids tried their hand at the wrestling business; the first one who was good enough to be a world champion pro wrestler was going to be booked to get close to or surpass Ric’s 16 championships. If Reid or David had reached WWE and been that good then one of them would have done it. For different reasons neither of them got there but Charlotte did. Would she have 14 if she was Steve Lombardi’s daughter? No. But if Ashley Lombardi came in with the same skills, same talent, and picked things up as quickly as Ashley Fliehr did do you really think she’d be a jobber, or stuck in the midcard? Really? No, she’d be a five or six time champion but without some of the super short reigns that happened along the way.
Is 14 championships something to get mad about? I don’t think it should be. Children surpassing their parents achievements is as much as part of pro wrestling as it is any other profession. Kerry Von Erich won the NWA World Title that his father Fritz did not, and just last year Cody Rhodes won the WWE title that Dusty never got to hold. Randy Orton surpassed both his father and grandfather, neither of whom won the WWE World Ttile. (Bob Jr, Randy’s Dad, never won any titles in WWE!) Bron Breakker has already held as many singles titles as his Dad Rick Steiner, and more than he ever held in WWE (0). Yes, Ric’s 14 is a much bigger number than 0 or 1 or 2, so surpassing him means winning a lot more titles than those other people I mentioned but my point still stands. Would you have been just as mad if David Flair had done it in 2010 or if Reid had lived and was close to it by now?
And 12 of those 14 losses have been used to give somebody else a big moment in their careers; it’s not like she dropped the belt off at the WWE office 14 times because she was done with it for now and wanted to go on vacation. Sasha Banks, Bayley, Carmella, Becky Lynch, Nikki Cross, Ronda Rousey and Rhea Ripley all have had some of the biggest nights of their careers, if not the biggest night, at Charlotte’s expense by beating her in the ring for a title or in a subsequent match while champion. How many other men or women there can you say that about?
Does Charlotte politic her way to winning things?
We have no idea. We’re not backstage, and to my knowledge there hasn’t been a single person – be it an opponent or someone else involved in the process – to come out and say that she was originally booked to lose a match but refused to play ball, or that she went to management and forced her way into something she originally wasn’t involved in. Before you say ‘yes she has!’, go back and look where you got that from. When somebody really refuses to do jobs you’ll hear about it from the people who worked with them, and came up on the short end – Hulk Hogan comes to mind immediately and so does his nemesis Roddy Piper. ‘Roddy didn’t do jobs’ has been a well known and openly spoken about thing for many years now by the people who worked with him, not randos on the internet.
And we’re at a point now where some of her former opponents no longer work for WWE and have no reason to sit on the information if they have it. Mercedes Mone (Banks) has zero reason to fear any retribution from WWE management seeing as she never has to set foot there again if she doesn’t want to, and is the one Charlotte has the most title wins over, AND they both have already admitted to having fallen out a bit because they did disagree over which one should have been champion first on the main roster. If anybody had a ‘not gonna work for me brother’ story to share it would be her, and so far we got nothing. If all you got to go on is narratives cooked up out of whole cloth then please, just stop it already.
Does she advocate for herself backstage? Absolutely. Everyone in that business makes pitches for storylines or angles or their character, says their piece about getting booked to win or lose a match, etc. The difference between advocating for yourself and politicking seems to be whether or not you like the person doing it. Again, produce a verified story from somebody involved where she went to management be it Vince or HHH and got a finish changed or moved somebody out of a spot on a card so she could have it. If all you got is ‘reports’ with no names or even specific actions mentioned, that you pick and choose on when to believe, then just stop it already.
Does Charlotte ever put anyone over?
See the first question. But for your answer in addition to the people mentioned up there she’s also lost clean as a whistle to Asuka, Nia Jax, Toni Storm, and Natalya since coming up to the main roster. Now if she didn’t lose to some name you have on a list of your own ok fine, but to take that and say that she doesn’t put anyone over is just ludicrous. The men and women in her position in WWE don’t lose clean to that many people, and when they do it’s usually to somebody being booked at their level. If you’re expecting her to take clean losses to all your favorite midcarders, please stay off the drugs and go check the records of her contemporaries – Lynch, Ripley, Bianca. If you’re comparing her won loss record to Dana Brooke that’s a you problem.
Does Charlotte bury people?
Give me a name. Asuka? You mean Grand Slam champion Asuka, who won all but one of those titles after WrestleMania 34? Sure buddy. Rhea Ripley? You mean biggest female star in the business Rhea Ripley? Sasha Banks? Yeah right. If by buried you mean ‘beat them in a match’ then whoo boy, you have a lot to learn about this pro wrestling stuff. And if you mean ‘beat somebody who never recovered’ then again, give me a name.
Does she steal opportunities?
From who? Give me a name. Who, in real life and not kayfabe, has missed out on a title match or title reign because they got moved out of the way for Ashley to have that spot on the show? Give me a name and give me some proof, i.e. somebody who was involved saying so. There are an infinite number of wrestlers who have a story about being told they were considered for a title run but the booker went with somebody else and they never got it. Find somebody to say that about her and then we can talk. And no, it doesn’t count if Charlotte was the first choice for that spot anyway. It’s not stealing if it was already yours.
The most recent example is Iyo Sky not getting to win the Royal Rumble, who is going into WrestleMania as……the current WWE Women’s World Champion. Yeah, she really missed out didn’t she? Look, unless you think every man and woman should get a shot at the World Title and that most of them should get to hold it at least once then what are we doing here? Again, give me a name of someone who’s been there more than five minutes who hasn’t gotten a title shot yet, and then show me what Charlotte Flair has to do with it. If not, stop it already.
Kayfabe vs Real Life
A lot, dare I say most of this, stems from people acting as if Charlotte Flair and Ashley Fliehr are the same person, or that what you see Charlotte do on TV is what Ashley is doing backstage or away from work. I mean…….ok. I don’t know Ashley Fliehr and I’m not pretending to. But I do know that a TV character is not the person who plays them, and have seen enough interviews with actors and actresses to know when they are different from the characters they play. If you’ve seen or heard Ashley do an interview out of character then you would know the difference her and Charlotte Flair. If you think she’s faking it….man, if she’s that good of an actress (and she ain’t) then she would be an actress and not a pro wrestler.
Am I biased? Sure. But tell me where anything I said here was incorrect. Do think the creative people have been tone deaf about her over the years? Yes, but not with the wins and losses. Charlotte is never going to be a beloved babyface and they’ve tried multiple times to book her as one. She’s natural at acting heelish (key word acting) on TV and is real awkward trying to act like a good girl. She’s said herself plenty of times she prefers playing a heel and she knows she’s better at it. I think there have also been several times where they didn’t write much of a story for her and just sent her out there to be Charlotte and do Charlotte stuff, which doesn’t really help anybody lots of times.
As for the wins and losses, compare her record to other men and women at her level on the roster. Losing regularly in televised matches doesn’t come with the territory, but even so she’s lost way more than her contemporaries. As for winning all those titles…..no wrestler turns that down. When the booker says you’re winning a belt you say thank you and take it. If you think the bookers shouldn’t have chosen her to win so much…..tell me who should have won instead, who didn’t get a bunch of accolades themselves. Like I’m sorry folks, but (insert name here) getting a 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th title reign instead of Charlotte having 14 ain’t it. And don’t insult my intelligence by naming somebody who was never gonna get one even if Charlotte never existed.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens going forward.
Stroke of Genius 