'I know what we’re capable of': Charlotte Flair hopes to make WrestleMania statement

Despite being one of the premier performers in WWE, it’s been three years since Charlotte Flair had the opportunity to experience a true WrestleMania moment.

A year after performing in the main event of WrestleMania 35 with Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey — making history in the process — the COVID-19 pandemic forced WWE to have WrestleMania 36 at its Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

After winning the 2020 Royal Rumble, Flair’s match was set against NXT champion Rhea Ripley, but instead of experiencing the rush of being in front of tens of thousands of people, Flair and Ripley wrestled with no crowd, leaving Flair to celebrate her victory — and another championship — alone.

Then, in 2021, Flair was set to face Smackdown women's champion Asuka before having WrestleMania ripped away from her entirely due to COVID once again.

“I was crushed at the time, but I feel like everything happens for a reason,” Flair told Yahoo Sports. “I went from missing 'Mania to the main event of 'Mania so maybe that was just something that needed to happen. I came back with the ‘opportunity’ promo. I really switched up my robes, little things and nuances to the character. Had I not missed WrestleMania, I may not have been so sensitive to make sure that things were different when I came back. I think it turned out to be a positive.”

Now, with WrestleMania 38 taking place this weekend in Dallas, Flair is finally back at the top of the card and set to perform in front of a potentially record-setting audience in a match against Rousey for the Smackdown women’s championship.

“It really hasn’t hit me, because since July [2021], since we’ve been back on live events, I’ve been so excited to be in front of fans, no matter the size of the audience,” Flair said. “I’m not necessarily thinking of the size of the audience or that I missed a few years. It all kind of just runs together. Everything stopped so suddenly, that to be back in front of fans, that rush hasn’t left yet.”

On the surface, this iteration of the Charlotte Flair character should feel familiar to fans.

Since being elevated to Raw and Smackdown seven years ago, Flair has mostly played a cocky, arrogant heel, leaning into her lineage, look and athleticism to exert dominance over an entire women’s division. A credit to her understanding and dedication to her craft, Flair has done such a good job over the years of selling her character that the lines between reality and fiction are blurred with her arguably more than any other talent on the WWE roster.

Flair calls the situation a “double-edged sword.”

“Since 2015, the fans have been told by opponents and commentary that I am entitled,” Flair said. “They think that things are handed to me because I am a Flair. It’s hard to change the perception when they have said that about my character for so long, so how can people separate Charlotte and Ashley. Then I really think that if my last name was a basic last name, people would appreciate the natural talent and the work ethic that I have put in for seven years.

“I have only missed TV twice, with minor incidents for a very short period of time since 2015. That’s a lot of hours, a lot of television, a lot of dedication and a lot of consistency. I would never change my last name and my dad is my biggest fan and I’m his biggest fan, but in terms of how people see me professionally, I think it makes it harder.”

To understand Flair’s journey, you have to go back to her first WrestleMania, in 2016 in Dallas, where she faced Lynch and Sasha Banks — collectively three of the Four Horsewomen — in a triple threat match for the reintroduced women’s championship.

Despite winning the match, Flair admits that the character and performer fans saw then is much different than what they saw at MetLife Stadium in 2019 and even more different from what they'll see again this weekend at AT&T Stadium.

“WrestleMania 32, I still thought about everything,” Flair said. “[I asked myself] How do I walk down the ramp? When do I woo? When do I spin? Oh my gosh don’t fall. I couldn’t be out there and enjoy the crowd because I was so new. Then you go to WrestleMania 35, and had I knew who I was going into the SummerSlam triple threat with me, Carmella and Becky, when the fans we booing me as the good guy, had I had the confidence to not care, own it and be that Charlotte Flair, I think that the outcome of those few months would have been different.”

The true confidence that Flair puts on display today didn’t wind up coming until her match against Rousey at Survivor Series in 2018. With Lynch sidelined due to a concussion, Flair was slotted in at the last minute to face Rousey.

Everything extra from the match was stripped away. There was no storyline to advance, no character to play. It was simply two athletes putting on a show in a wrestling ring.

“I did not get to that point of frustration until Survivor Series with Ronda,” Flair said. “That was when I said to myself [when it came to the crowd] ‘Here we go, boo, cheer, whatever.’ I was able to show the world who Charlotte Flair was. That was when not caring clicked. It doesn’t mean I wasn’t caring about my work. It was not caring about being liked or a good guy. Why would I change my work for approval? That’s what I was doing. I felt like I was diminishing myself because I wanted to be cheered.”

Flair’s confidence is evident now in everything that she does as she owns her role and the character she plays. It’s really the pinnacle of the psychology of professional wrestling. Of course there will always be good and bad characters, but in 2022 that distinction seems to matter less and less.

The crowd’s reaction — any reaction — is what remains paramount to overall success. Yet somehow, Flair can’t shake the entitlement stigma and fans continue to find ways to question her continued presence at the top of the card.

“When you’re the 13-time Women’s Champion, it’s hard for people to believe that you can want more, but how do you think I got here?” Flair said. “The only part of my character that I think people connect with is the fact that I have a dad in the same industry. No one can say what it’s like to have Ric Flair in the same industry or to be the most decorated woman or have the athleticism that I have. I want people to connect with me, but I think sometimes when I try it comes across even worse.

“Am I supposed to wake up one day and just say ‘Oh, I’m gonna stop working hard’ or ‘Oh, I don’t want more.’ They don’t say that to the men. Why do they say that to me?”

There’s also an argument to be made that Flair’s inherent talent, understanding and athleticism makes it that she doesn’t need the women’s championship to raise the stakes of her matches. While Flair doesn’t see herself ever being above holding a title belt, there’s also opportunity for her to elevate others while defending it.

“I wear the title, the title doesn’t wear me,” Flair said. “I have the title when it benefits the storyline. I think I carry myself like a champion. That’s something you’re either born with or you’re not. Even when I don’t have the title, I still feel like when I walk out there I am the champion in the room until someone takes that torch from me.”

Now, Rousey will look to take that torch and Flair’s championship in the process in Saturday’s WrestleMania main event. In her sixth WrestleMania in the past seven years, Flair finally enters knowing exactly who she is, what she hopes to do with Rousey in the ring and the message she wants to send to her peers.

“I know what we’re capable of, so the only thing I feel is excitement,” Flair said.

“After Ronda and I close the show, my message will be “follow that” to everyone on night two because they won’t be able to.”