Charlotte Flair Accused of Going Off Script First in Heated WWE SmackDown Segment with Tiffany Stratton

What started as a fiery in-ring segment between Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton on WWE SmackDown has turned into a full-blown backstage drama, and now a new twist is changing how fans are seeing the situation.

According to an update from Dave Meltzer via F4WOnline, Tiffany Stratton’s now-viral verbal jabs weren’t unprovoked—they were payback.

“We were told from someone close to Stratton that Flair went off script first and the lines from her, from her standpoint, were retaliation,” Meltzer reported. He added that Stratton’s decision to “roll out of the ring like a heel” wasn’t a sign of backing down—it was her “defense mechanism” to avoid the exchange spiraling even further out of control.

This claim flips the script on earlier reports that pinned Stratton as the one who took things too far. One source close to the situation told Meltzer that “there was heat on both and neither was the ‘good guy.’” While WWE is keeping quiet publicly, insiders say Flair may have sparked the verbal firestorm that led to Stratton’s now-infamous line: “Outside the ring, you ain’t the queen of sht.”*

That wasn’t all. Stratton followed it up by referencing Flair’s personal life with a cold shot: “What is that, zero and three?”—a comment widely believed to be aimed at Flair’s past divorces. WWE fans in Chicago were loudly behind Stratton, which only made the diss hit harder.

Flair attempted a rebuttal after Stratton had already exited the ring, snapping back with: “Is that why Kaiser’s in my DMs?” But according to one backstage source, the line came off as “a flailing shot from a boxer who didn’t realize they were KO’d.”

Behind the scenes, WWE officials weren’t thrilled. Sources say the segment went “off the rails” toward the end, and several of the more personal lines were cut from the YouTube highlight reel. It remains to be seen whether the full episode on Peacock will be edited as well.

With blame now shifting toward Flair for allegedly initiating the off-script chaos, some are starting to look at Stratton’s actions in a different light. One WWE insider said Stratton was “fighting back” after feeling Flair “ate her up” in a previous promo, and the Chicago crowd made it clear who they were siding with.

Whether this drama leads to more fireworks on TV or gets squashed behind closed doors, one thing is clear—this isn’t your typical scripted tension.