Wade Keller of the PWTorch gave some additional details on a recent audio update regarding the situation with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch on this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown.
Flair thought the exchange of the titles segment would make her and her title reign look weak, which was something she went to management about. She was later asked to leave the arena while Lynch worked a dark match to avoid another confrontation.
Keller reports that none of the female wrestlers want to work with Flair due to her behavior.
“From what I’m told from people behind the scenes [is that] none of the women want to work with her,” Keller said. “Like, not in the ring, in a match, not on the mic and I’ve sort of been not going into tons of detail on it and some situations there’s been some speculation [that] I didn’t want to get into in terms of what’s going on and what’s causing it but it became newsworthy again last night.”
Keller reached out to Flair’s side to get her side of the story. He hasn’t heard of anyone defending Flair.
“I specifically reached out to people in seeking out Charlotte’s side of this because it does, from the people I’ve been talking to, it just feels so one-sided. And these are people I trust and I talk to them about other things. This isn’t like I’m talking to people who are anti-Charlotte. It’s just sort of people in WWE I talk to, some wrestlers and others, who are just reliable, and the stuff they tell me seems agenda-free and it’s played out as standing the test of time before…I don’t hear anyone defending Charlotte in this. Somebody in so many words said Becky is a hero to the locker room for calling out Charlotte and not letting her get away with what she does.”
“One wrestler I talk to just said that the way, and I’m paraphrasing here to lighten up the language a bit because this wrestler that was not thrilled with Charlotte just said, the way Charlotte’s acting is gonna cause issues both with colleagues and with management. He really stressed how respected and well liked Becky is universally in the locker room and that she was seen as a bit of a hero for it. Basically, the idea was Charlotte was being difficult and Becky wasn’t going to take it anymore. She wasn’t gonna have it anymore and that’s what led to the confrontation. Another wrestler at the show put it even more forcefully than that in terms of Charlotte…”
“Charlotte has a reputation flat out for being difficult and constantly concerned that she’s not getting the respect that someone of her stature and accomplishment or at least her character stature and her character’s accomplishment. Maybe there’s a blending of the two right now that has some people wondering about her. [She feels that] she should be treated at a different level and that other stars who are on top had to work really hard to protect themselves. Steve Austin certainly had that reputation for going, ‘i’m not gonna do this, this isn’t making me look good, I’m too important’ but Charlotte doesn’t quite have that clout but she also isn’t conducting herself well. Sounds like it’s pretty universal that people look at her as not looking out for anyone but herself in a way that goes beyond normal looking out for yourself in this business and that she doesn’t want to sell for anyone. It goes to how she’s handled when she’s been asked to do jobs. It goes to the Nia Jax situation and how that match turned into a debacle because Charlotte got upset over what was planned for that match, both the content and the finish. That’s been an ongoing thing with her and Becky is very aware of all that and she certainly has the clout to do it. Charlotte from what I heard was swearing up and down that dropping the belt the way she did was an accident. Her contention is and I’m connecting some dots here, Charlotte’s contention is that the tug of war she wasn’t supposed to win it so quickly and when she flung the belt backwards she didn’t know where to drop it [and] she couldn’t just move it forward in front of Becky then so it ended up dropping to the side and behind her because the tug of war didn’t go as planned and her arm is back there [so] why would she move it forward and then drop it than be more disrespectful and letting go or whatever. So she’s trying to make that case. To put it mildly, nobody involved in that situation was buying that and Charlotte was asked to leave the building.”
Keller continued by talking about how Flair has isolated herself from the rest of the locker room and she’s in her own world.
“Charlotte has really isolated herself from the rest of the locker room. There’s not a lot of friendliness interaction. She’s kind of in her own world now and so she’s just not endearing herself to the locker room in any way. It’s not like that makes them side against her but that’s a symptom of people are wondering what’s going on with her and that she’s just in her own head and overreacting to things and over scrutinizing things and questioning everything and worried that she’s not being given the protection and the spotlight and the being portrayed as a level higher than everybody else and others are [saying], well, what makes you think you’re better than us and at that level to that degree and if you were it’s a very ungracious way and kind of a paranoid way to go about things.”
Flair also reportedly feels as if she can get away with anyone because of the lack of depth on the roster as well as the TV networks wanting her.
“The last thing is that Charlotte feels she can get away with it because there’s just not enough depth on the roster to punish her. Right now they got networks that want ratings and they did a draft and they evenly divided it and if they were to punish Charlotte at this point, you’re reducing a weak SmackDown roster even more and they just don’t think they can afford to do that…This is a situation that they are going to have to manage and it looks like what happened with Nia Jax and that wasn’t the first thing and it wasn’t the last thing that happened before this but this situation needs to be addressed and I know there’s people who used to like Charlotte that don’t even recognize her anymore.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
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