Backstage Talk On Why The Charlotte Flair Situation Is “Tricky” For WWE
A WWE source has reportedly described the situation with SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair as a "tricky" one.
As we've noted, the October 22 edition of SmackDown on FOX saw Flair and RAW Women's Champion Becky Lynch participate in a championship exchange segment, moderated by Sonya Deville, where they switched titles due to the WWE Draft. Tension between the two reportedly led to an off-script moment in the segment, which caused a backstage confrontation between Flair and Lynch. You can click here, here, and here for our original reports on the incident, and here for news on Sonya Deville's heat with Flair.
In an update, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that Flair is a "tricky situation" for multiple reasons, but mainly because she's not the only guilty party.
"Charlotte is a tricky situation. Not just because she's a star in a division with very few stars. But because she's not the only guilty party. Discipline her and you have to discipline quite a few people," a WWE source reportedly stated.
It was noted in one of last week's follow-up reports that some of the criticism against Flair was that she's been self-indulgent towards protecting herself and has made sure that all attention is on her. One WWE source addressed that criticism and said that's what stars do – they make sure their star power remains the same or greater. Another WWE source had noted how resentment towards Flair had been building in recent weeks, and that it was "just a matter of time" before something happened. Flair was reportedly escorted out of the arena by WWE officials after the incident with Lynch, which was seen as a sign of disrespect by some close to her.
Regarding Flair's future, it's believed that she will remain with WWE, at least until her contract runs out. There has been no talk of WWE taking the title off Flair due to the incident with Lynch, but it remains to be seen if she's dealing with any other repercussions. There was talk last week that people close to Flair were privately pushing her to try and get out of her WWE contract, but a source noted that realistically no one expected that to actually happen.
Flair was back in action last Friday night as she defeated Shotzi in a non-title bout. WWE did have Flair scheduled for media to promote last week's SmackDown, but they pulled her on the day of the interviews, likely to avoid any awkward exchanges.
Stay tuned for more.