Sources within WWE believe that Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton may have been placed in a “sink-or-swim situation” following the events that took place on the most recent episode of SmackDown.
One week on from their pull-apart brawl segments, Stratton and Charlotte Flair exchanged a war of words on the March 21st episode of SmackDown. Appearing via video call in separate rooms, Flair cut off Stratton multiple times and at times berated the Women’s Champion, describing her WrestleMania opponent as “delusional” and “not even the hottest thing on SmackDown.”
With many of the beliefs that Flair came off best following the exchange, some were questioning how much of the segment was scripted and if Flair went into business for herself.
Addressing the segment on the Fightful Select Q and A podcast, Sean Ross Sapp noted that some within the company felt that Stratton was put in a testing situation, adding that while the Women’s Champion did not fail, Flair definitely did better:
“Definitely there were some people that were like, ‘Oh, Charlotte definitely handled business on that one.’ Then there were some others that felt like Tiffany was put in a sink-or-swim situation, and they didn’t say that she sank, it’s just that Charlotte Flair is a better swimmer, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t believe she [Charlotte] went off-script or anything like that but it does seem like she knew everything that Tiffany was going to say and had something for that. I don’t know the level of improvisation there, but there were a lot of people that said, ‘Yeah man, Charlotte looked really good in that segment and Tiffany didn’t.’ But I feel like that should be [by] design,”
Tiffany Stratton And Charlotte Flair To Collide At WrestleMania 41
After being side-lined for more than a year due to a serious knee injury, Flair made her return to the ring at the 2025 Royal Rumble. Becoming the first woman to win the Rumble match twice, Charlotte Flair chose Tiffany Stratton as her champion of choice, securing both stars’ match in Las Vegas.
In other news, Lilian Garcia detailed how her WWE return came to be.