Charlotte Flair is less than a week away from putting her SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line against Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 38. She recently spoke to Bleacher Report in regards to her championship reigns in particular and despite her hard work, she isn’t proud of all of her title runs.
While talking to Bleacher Report, Flair comments on the backlash she receives for always being at the top of the division. And despite the critics, she continues to put in hard work.
“I have been on top since 2015, whether I’ve been holding the title or not,” Flair said. “People don’t realize how much pressure and hard work and dedication and I’ve never been about for a lengthy time. I’ve never had a major injury and to be able to stay on top like that is a tremendous amount of work in our industry. Instead of looking at it as a positive, like ‘Wow, what a consistent performer, what a hard-worker,’ it’s just, ‘Ugh, she’s always in the title picture, she always has the title.'”
Since joining the main roster in 2015, Flair has won a total of 13 singles titles (6 – Raw, 6 – SmackDown, 1 – Divas) making her the most decorated women’s superstar of all time. She is also a two-time NXT Women’s Champion and a Women’s Tag Team Champion with Asuka. Out of her 13 title wins on the main roster, three of them lasted one day or fewer thanks to three women cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase (Carmella, Bayley, Nikki A.S.H.).
Even with her hard work and the pressure that it takes to be a high profiled WWE Superstar, Flair comments that not all of her title reigns is she proud of. One of the short reigns she is proud of, in particular, was when she dropped the Raw Women’s Title to Bayley in 2017. A match that has 4.6 million views on YouTube. Flair had the title less than two months.
“There’s a lot of title runs I’m not proud of just because I didn’t do anything with it, but when you look at it, it’s multiple feuds with multiple women that I dropped the title to,” Flair said. “One of my favorite matches of all time was a main event on Raw where I dropped the title to Bayley in 2017. With where I’m at today, it’s not that they don’t like the good, they just don’t like the best. There’s a quote I look at, that’s not exactly it. But I must be doing something right to always be talked about: good, bad or indifferent.”
She continues, “I don’t think the same criticism always goes toward men being in the title picture. In this business, you want to be the champion. It’s not like you wake up and say, ‘Today, I don’t want to be the champion.’ No, you should always want to be the champion. That means you’re the hardest worker in the room when you’re holding that title. Yes, I don’t understand the criticism sometimes, but at the same time, my haters make me that much better.”
In the same interview, she shifts the focus to her current title reign. She became SmackDown Women’s Champion during a title switch after the WWE Draft which had her and Becky Lynch move to opposite brands. Her current reign is the longest she has held a championship on the main roster which is at 155 days and counting (an additional 62 prior days as Raw Women’s Champion before the switch occurred).
“For me, I think I would’ve liked to have more title defenses on pay-per-views, but under certain circumstances…It was cool being champion going into the Royal Rumble because that’s never happened before [with the women],” Flair said.
Coming out of Survivor Series, Flair has successfully defended the SmackDown Women’s Title against both Toni Storm and Naomi. Storm has since left the company. She speaks about working with both and how she feels her reign will hold up after WrestleMania.
“Having that match with Naomi, I’ve been waiting for that match for five years now and we were finally able to have it on SmackDown last month. I thought that was incredible. It’s so cliche, but that was only a taste of what we can do. It was only one match. That was special for me. With Survivor Series [vs. Lynch], all I can say is that number one doesn’t talk about number two, but it was fun to revisit that bitter best friend [storyline].”
“I think whatever I’ve done throughout this entire run will be forgotten about after WrestleMania,” she said. “I hate to say that because I loved working with Naomi and it was a pleasure being able to face Toni. I wish her the best. She has so much talent and is a star. I think, for me, everything will be forgotten once WrestleMania happens.”
Will Flair be able to retain her title against Ronda Rousey? And if not, what is next for The Queen?
Check back in with Diva Dirt as we build towards WrestleMania 38 on April 2 & 3.
