It seems only yesterday that three of the Four Horsewomen of NXT were called up to the main roster. Now, the three-time Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair, reflects on how she had to kill the baby-face imagery, that we came to associate with her as a debutante.
Landing one controversial win after another, Charlotte bagged the gold in the first ever women’s Hell in A Cell match. Charlotte reflected on why she figured that a heel turn would skyrocket her screen presence more, on espn.com’s “Women’s Wrestling Revolution” feature:
“The hard part for me was not the wrestling — it was showing emotion, telling a story and being able to connect with fans. Coming out as Ric Flair’s daughter and being called athletically gifted, it’s hard to say, “Hey, like me! You can relate to me!” It wasn’t working, so I completely switched my character. I find it easier to pretend to be the person everyone already thinks I am, versus being who I am.”
Charlotte was a frontrunner of the “Diva’s Revolution”, which took place almost a season ago. She won the title for the first time off Nikki Bella, portraying a down-to-earth baby face, who is here to add more spoils to the Flair lineage’s legacy.
However, WWE made one crucial mistake in a bid to gallop even faster. This mistake was the idea of solidifying the women’s segment on its live events, by having Nikki Bella dethroned by a months-old, fresh-faced rookie.
This undermined Nikki’s title reign and claim to fame as the longest running Divas’ Champion and did not put Charlotte ‘over’ with the majority of the fans.
Nikki Bella’s accusation of Charlotte using her legendary father’s underhand means to win the big matches was a successful spin in the story. It soon paved the way for Charlotte’s complete transformation into an athletic heel and Women’s Champion.
She made short work of the underdog, Becky Lynch, and eventually washed her hands off her ring-side aide, mentor, and father, Ric Flair. Her regular lashing out at her protégé, Dana Brook, has further cemented her popularity as a heel that everyone loves to hate.
The two and fro exchange of titles between Sasha Banks and Charlotte has kept up the pace of the Women’s segment. However, nuanced characters seem to have worked wonders for the Women’s division.
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