Charlotte Flair is currently absent from WWE programming and as far as she’s concerned, it’ll stay that way until she’s unravelled a new layer!
‘The Opportunity’ hasn’t been seen on WWE programming since dropping the SmackDown Women’s Championship at Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania Backlash, taking time away to marry her now-husband, Andrade El Idolo.
She was, however, the latest guest on ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions, discussing her eventual return to the squared circle. Charlotte Flair noted that when she comes back, she wants to do so with a new layer to her, as she did last year when she returned following WrestleMania 37:
“The problem with me is I always want to be on top. I never want to slow down and if someone didn’t tell me to slow down and smell the roses, I would just constantly be working because I didn’t find myself or find who I was and all these things until I started working. Since 2012, that’s why I’m here. Highs and lows, I wish Backlash had been my ‘Mania match. Things happen, whatever, but I left on a high.
I’m still looking for that next big feud, I’m still looking for that next big match. You’ve got Rhea (Ripley) probably wanting to beat me. Bianca (Belair), Liv (Morgan). There is so much for me to be excited for. The problem is, for me, I could just keep going. I always want to be better and sometimes being a perfectionist can get…’Mania, I wanted it to be too perfect and when I got to Backlash, I was like, ‘You do you, boo.’
That’s why it came across…this is my opinion, I do want to come back with a different layer. I came back after last year missing ‘Mania with ‘The Opportunity’, just changing my clothes, I want my body to look better, I’ve gotten in better shape, changed the hair up a little, what is that next layer? I can tell you it’s not going to be a good guy [laughs]. What does it look like? Am I darker? At the same time, I’m like, don’t fix something that is not broken, but you always need to evolve somehow, and what does that look like?”
Prior to her taking time away from WWE, Charlotte Flair reigned as the SmackDown Women’s Champion for 198 days, having traded the Raw Women’s Championship for Becky Lynch’s blue brand title. This marked Flair’s sixth run with the SmackDown championship, the most of any WWE Superstar.
A top WWE star since her main roster transition in the summer of 2015, Charlotte has done nearly all there is to do. As the fifth Triple Crown and fourth Grand Slam Women’s Champion in the company, all that’s currently left for her to hold is the women’s Money in the Bank briefcase.
Heading into SummerSlam and the planned title showdown between defending champion Liv Morgan – who won the title by cashing in her briefcase – and Ronda Rousey, many had predicted Charlotte Flair to be inserted into the match but alas, she remains an absentee. It’s unknown when she’ll return.