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Charlotte Flair will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest ever WWE Women’s superstar. The 12x Women’s Champion has had an amazing 2020 so far, from winning the Royal Rumble in January to defeating Rhea Ripley and becoming two-time NXT Women’s Champion at WrestleMania in April. She now appears on Raw and NXT as she continues to destroy every Women’s division.
She recently spoke to Sports Illustrated, where she revealed her thoughts on her WrestleMania 36 match against Rhea Ripley, her feelings on the lack of a WWE crowd and her opinions on the NXT Women’s division.
Flair was asked about her recent Raw match against Liv Morgan and her reactions to the backlash of halting Liv’s momentum:
My take was, when I first found out about it, was we had three segs [television segments], with a promo and a match, that is a huge chunk of time. That’s an opportunity to highlight Liv, highlight myself, and it’s much more time than we were given before. I went out there thinking, ‘How can I give Liv the best performance knowing she is the next big thing?’ Having the promo and the two segs, I don’t think people realize how much goes into that. I’ve had those reps, she hasn’t. I know people were disappointed she lost but, at the same time, it makes you go, ‘I want more for her!’ Now you want more for Liv. Sometimes people forget this, but you can’t slay the dragon on the first night.
Flair was then questioned on her thoughts of WWE not having a crowd and if she has gotten used to it.
I just tried to go in very calm and be more vocal trash-talking Rhea the whole time. To me, there has to be even more intensity without the audience. Normally, when you’re watching at home, you can feed off the crowd. Now you can only feed off the two talent in the ring.
Going into this match, I didn’t want to think, ‘Man, we don’t have an audience’ or ‘It’s too bad we’re not at the Buccaneers’ stadium.’ This was an opportunity to separate ourselves and bring intensity, emotion, and storytelling. Watching a movie, there is no audience. I wanted to do that as a performer, so that’s what I thought entering the match. Our match was all about two women physically telling that story, aggressively. That’s what I want people to take away from our match.
They then asked her about the NXT Women’s division and how it compares to the rest of WWE:
Well, I think so. And I meant what I said in the build-up package to the Mia Yim match. Raw and SmackDown have great divisions, but when you look at NXT’s women’s division as a whole and really look at the collective years and experience, that’s what makes this division so deep.
I’ll use the Four Horsewomen [Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch] as an example. I have no years of experience except for what you’ve seen on TV. I grew up before your eyes. But wrestling Io, she’s wrestled all over the world. This is a different kind of performance for her—WWE is different and the style is different, but that’s what makes NXT so special. It’s that level of experience.
She is finally asked about the current situation and how it has affected her performance:
I’m staying busy with Raw and NXT, but I miss live events and I miss the fans. This is the first time in my entire career I haven’t been traveling as much. My body feels rejuvenated, but I really miss the traveling, especially overseas. We were supposed to be in Africa, and I’ve never had the opportunity to perform there. I will be looking forward to getting back to a normal schedule, but right now, I’m looking at this as an opportunity.
Credit to Sports Illustrated for quotes used