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Charlotte Flair Didn’t Expect To Win Women’s Title First Night Back, Talks Transition to Babyface

January 27, 2023 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
WWE Smackdown Charlotte Flair Image Credit: WWE

Charlotte Flair returned strong with a new babyface direction last month, but she says she didn’t expect to win the Smackdown Women’s Title her first night back. Flair, who did in fact defeat Ronda Rousey to win the championship in her return on the December 30th episode of Smackdown, spoke with Busted Open Radio and talked about tweaking her character to a babyface role, her title win and more. Some excerpts from the conversation are below, courtesy of Fightful:

On tweaking her character now that she’s a babyface: “I think the key is to just let them react. I’m not thinking, ‘What can I do to make them cheer me?’ There’s no active thought, ‘I have to act this way.’ The only thing I’m really focused on is how I approach promos. Maybe don’t say ’14 times’ four times. On Raw, don’t say, ‘I beat these women to get here.’ I ‘faced’ these women. Just little changes like that. [laughs] I’m just going to re-write history and pretend I didn’t have this and I’m just happy to be here.

“When I had the opportunity to talk to the fans when I beat Ronda in that first promo back, I really did mean what I said. Consistency, passion, and dedication have always been my driving force. I’ve still had all these opportunities and have done all these things, but there are still little things that can be better. There are still things that can be worked on. There is always that next big rivalry. I’m never complacent. That is how I’m approaching this ‘good guy’ whatever run. It’s not bragging about what I’ve done. It’s saying, we’ve done this on my journey because of my love for being in the ring for you guys, the fans. Not that corny, but even though I’ve been bad most of my career; consistency, dedication, and passion have gotten me here.”

On what she had imagined regarding her return: “I definitely didn’t think I was going to be champ off the bat. I knew the direction I wanted to go. It felt weird if I didn’t comeback and go after Ronda again. If I just ignored her, even though we’ve been in and out of storylines the past couple of years, I needed to go back to Ronda. Where I went from there, I didn’t think I was going to have the same reception every week. It almost gets better. You always get that one good ‘YAY!’ It’s been that way, even on live events. I’m committing to it.”