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Charlotte Flair wishes she could revisit the feud she had with Paige during her first year on WWE’s main roster.
At Night of Champions 2015, Flair defeated Nikki Bella for the Divas Championship two months after officially joining the RAW and SmackDown rosters. She went on to retain the title against Paige at Survivor Series 2015 and TLC 2015.
Speaking on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast, Flair admitted she struggled to believe in her ability as a superstar after leaving NXT for the main roster. She also reflected on her early main-roster feuds with Nikki Bella, Paige, and Sasha Banks.
“If I could go back and redo my first two years of feuds, I would do anything to go back and wrestle Paige,” Flair said. “After Nikki, I was wrestling Paige and I had my dad [Ric Flair] in my corner, and then you had Sasha and I go back and forth for like four pay-per-views.”
During her first main-roster year, Flair held the Divas Championship for 196 days before the title was retired at WrestleMania 32. At the same event, she won the newly introduced WWE Women’s Championship in a Triple Threat match against Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks.
By contrast, Paige did not compete in any WWE matches between June 2016 and December 2017 due to a neck injury. The injury forced her to retire from in-ring competition in April 2018.
Charlotte Flair lacked experience compared to Paige and Sasha Banks
Charlotte Flair was part of an elite group of up-and-coming female superstars during her time in NXT between 2012 and 2015. Despite quickly showing potential as a future star, she did not have the experience that the likes of Paige and Sasha Banks possessed.
Looking back, Flair says she cringes watching some of the matches she competed in during the early stages of her career.
“I was not the performer then that I am now because I was just playing catch-up,” Flair added. “Everyone else had been wrestling on the independents. I’m NXT home-grown. I am a product of the Performance Center, so I just go, ‘Man, I could have made this so much better.’ Sometimes some of the stuff I watch back, I go, ‘Oh, that’s cringeworthy.’”
Flair defeated Rhea Ripley at Sunday's WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view to win the RAW Women's Championship. Including her two NXT Women's Championship reigns, the 35-year-old is now a 14-time Women's Champion.
Please credit Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
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