After being out of action since May 2022 Charlotte Flair made a shock return to the ring on the December 30th episode of SmackDown.
After Ronda Rousey defended the SmackDown Women’s Title against Raquel Rodriguez, Flair came to the ring to lay down her own challenge to the former UFC star. Rousey quickly accepted but was pinned in less than a minute, as Flair became a 14-time Women’s Champion.
While Flair initially took a break from WWE to get married to partner Andrade El Idolo, she also underwent multiple dental surgeries that delayed her return.
When Did Charlotte Flair Want To Return To WWE?
Speaking on a recent episode of the Out of Character podcast with Ryan Satin, Flair revealed that she discovered she would be coming back at Christmas. However, she had pushed to be back at Survivor Series.
“Right around Christmas. I really wanted to come back at Survivor Series, but I had just finished getting my last stitches out. So he was like, ‘don’t push it.’ I got the greenlight the week of New Year’s,”
In traditional WWE style, Flair said that she only found out she was winning the SmackDown Wome’s Title when she arrived at the arena. The only problem was that she didn’t have any ring gear with her. This started a mad scramble which ended with her cleaner arriving with her gear less than an hour before the show went on the air.
“I didn’t find out I was winning the title until I got there. I didn’t have gear with me. My amazing cleaning lady brought me my gear. I should have known better. I’m coming to a wrestling show, I just brought my outfit. I thought it was just going to be a walkout surprise because I had been gone for so long, I really didn’t need to be any major fireworks, but when I got there they were like, ‘You need your gear.’ I got the call at maybe 5ish that I needed gear, right before I got to the arena. She got to the arena around 7, 7:15.”
Since winning the gold, Flair has begun a rivalry with Sonya Deville.
H/t to Fightful