During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Charlotte Flair commented on WWE NXT going head-to-head with AEW Dynamite, trying to set herself apart for empty arena shows, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On her match this week with Liv Morgan: “My take was, when I first found out about it, was we had three segs [television segments], with a promo and a match, that is a huge chunk of time. That’s an opportunity to highlight Liv, highlight myself, and it’s much more time than we were given before. I went out there thinking, ‘How can I give Liv the best performance knowing she is the next big thing?’ Having the promo and the two segs, I don’t think people realize how much goes into that. I’ve had those reps, she hasn’t. I know people were disappointed she lost but, at the same time, it makes you go, ‘I want more for her!’ Now you want more for Liv. Sometimes people forget this, but you can’t slay the dragon on the first night.”
On empty venue for her WrestleMania match with Rhea Ripley: “When you think of my dad and Shawn [Michaels] and their WrestleMania match, you normally don’t think of a great crossbody off the top or a moonsault. The one thing you remember from that match is Shawn going, ‘I love you, I’m sorry.’ With these empty arena shows, my first goal is to set myself apart from everyone else. How do I do that? How do I make the audience forget that there’s no crowd? And how do I do that with an opponent that’s never been on a WrestleMania? I just tried to go in very calm and be more vocal trash-talking Rhea the whole time. To me, there has to be even more intensity without the audience. Normally, when you’re watching at home, you can feed off the crowd. Now you can only feed off the two talent in the ring. Going into this match, I didn’t want to think, ‘Man, we don’t have an audience’ or ‘It’s too bad we’re not at the Buccaneers’ stadium.’ This was an opportunity to separate ourselves and bring intensity, emotion, and storytelling. Watching a movie, there is no audience. I wanted to do that as a performer, so that’s what I thought entering the match. Our match was all about two women physically telling that story, aggressively. That’s what I want people to take away from our match.”
On what excites her about facing Io Shirai: “I want people coming out of this match thinking, ‘Io is going to run this division.’ For me on a personal level, not that I’m comparing Io to Trish Stratus, but I’m feeling that same amount of pressure. I feel pressure before every match, but when Trish came back and wanted to wrestle me, all I could think was, ‘I hope I live up to her expectations. I hope I’m as good as she thinks I am.’ Multiple have told me I’m Io’s dream match, and she’s said that herself, so I hope I’m the same Charlotte Flair she sees me as in this competition. That’s the pressure I am feeling going into this.”
On NXT going head-to-head against AEW on Wednesdays: “I try not to get caught up in the business side. When I have that opportunity to highlight my opponent and myself, that’s what we’re here to do. Going into this match, we’re trying to raise the bar.”
