Charlotte Flair knows she has a reputation for speaking her mind when she doesn’t agree with WWE creative, but she doesn’t think that should automatically make her “difficult.” After more than a decade in the business, Charlotte believes she’s earned the right to have an opinion—even if she’s also learned that she won’t always get her way.
Speaking on Power Hour, Charlotte admitted that one of her biggest adjustments has been separating her competitive instincts from the reality of professional wrestling. For a long time, winning was what mattered to her. That mentality came naturally from her athletic background, but wrestling eventually forced her to look at losses differently.
“What I’ve learned over the last year—and I was guilty of this—is like all I could attach my emotions to is winning, winning, winning.”
Charlotte eventually realized that losing on television doesn’t necessarily mean she’s actually losing anything. A defeat can help the story, strengthen somebody else and ultimately make her more valuable as a performer.
“When it’s like, wait, hold on. This still isn’t real. Your losses are making you win, right, as a businesswoman. So, for me as an athlete, having to understand that has been like such growth.”
That doesn’t mean she suddenly agrees with every idea WWE puts in front of her. When asked how often she finds herself fighting against creative decisions she doesn’t like, Charlotte gave a pretty straightforward answer: “Oh, 50/50.”
Part of that comes back to the athlete in her. Charlotte noted that plenty of people she works with never came from competitive sports, so she sometimes approaches situations with a different mentality.
But there’s another part of it that bothers her. Charlotte believes women can quickly get branded as difficult simply for having strong opinions about their own creative direction. Charlotte isn’t interested in accepting that label.
“A lot of people that I work with haven’t played sports, and I also feel being a woman in the industry sometimes if I do have an opinion, it’s like, ‘Oh man, she’s just difficult.’ No, I’m not difficult. I have an opinion. I’ve done this for a long time. I deserve to have it.”
At the same time, she knows there’s a point where arguing has to stop. One of the biggest lessons she’s learned is that her competitive ego can’t always dictate what happens when the entire point is to tell a story.
“At the same time, you kind of have to let down your ego as an athlete and go, we are here to tell stories and we’re here to elicit emotion, and if that’s what’s best for the story, then you have to just, like, eat it.”
So Charlotte still has opinions, and she’s clearly not planning to stop voicing them. The difference now is understanding that sometimes taking the loss—or accepting a creative decision she doesn’t love—is actually part of winning in the bigger picture.
What do you make of Charlotte Flair’s comments about pushing back against WWE creative and being labeled “difficult”? Let us know in the comments.
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