When people ask what’s your process or what is your, like what do you do to get ready, like lacing my boots gets me in the, the zone.
The pressure of being Ric Flair is like.
Unimaginable.
My brother paid the biggest price.
And when he passed away and I started wrestling because I wanted to wrestle with him and help him get him on the right path, so really like ultimately he saved me.
When did I fall in love with pro wrestling?
I grew up in pro wrestling due to my dad being a wrestler.
Both my brothers wanted to be wrestlers, but I did not fall in love with pro wrestling until after my first year in developmental in 2013.
I even started not even knowing anything about wrestling.
I loved my dad.
I loved what he did.
I loved going to the matches and him showing off his family, sitting front row, cheering for him.
When his music would hit, I would have this like wave of emotion and be like, that’s my dad, and be like so proud of him, but I don’t really think wrestling was like a part of my life.
Sports were important from gymnastics to basketball, volleyball, cheerleading.
Not that he did it on purpose, but like he was on the road, we weren’t.
So I got to be around it later in high school.
I was like, hey, you’re graduating.
I’m gonna take you to Europe on tour and like that’s when I got to like see like, oh, the road, but wrestling was just kind of background noise that I didn’t really take, I don’t, it, it didn’t shape me.
Like I knew my dad and what he did was very complicated and our life was complicated.
The irony is I I never grew up wanting to be a, a flare or like even what that meant.
I didn’t even get that.
Like my little brother Reed, who I dedicate my career to, like he wanted to be a flare.
Like I didn’t get what like being a flare meant when I started wrestling.
I had no idea even what my dad meant to the industry.
So now carving my own path and creating my own legacy.
I think I am redefining what it means to be a flare.
Yes, I am synonymous with gold.
Yes, I’m the fourteen-time women’s champion, but I’m also, um, A strong, independent, dominant female in a male dominated world and now when there are little girls and little boys who don’t even know who my father is, what it means to be a flare is gonna be a totally different dynamic.
I think from 2015 to 2024, it was Charlotte and then no end, and I think in my personal life, that relentless pursuit of perfection of being Charlotte hurt, not hurt it, but I was struggling in my personal life, like not knowing like where do I begin?
What, what do, what do I like?
And I felt that because.
You know, what I do and my career is so important to me, bringing more of my personal life and what I like, the good and the bad, what I’ve been through to the character is like helping the character flourish after 10 years when I’ve just been synonymous with gold, but there’s so much more to being a champion than just being the best.
Yeah, I wanted to create this untouchable woman that for me was, I got to pretend to be, and I’m not, you know, I’m not as confident as Charlotte in my real life.
So when I got to be Charlotte, I could have that like armor.
Being , you know.
Not having it all together, being vulnerable, not winning all the time, you know, I was hiding when I was going through all those things, but rising from them is what made me better and bringing that to Charlotte when I thought she had to be like just the best all the time and actually like.
Hm The individual losses of whether it was losing mania or in my personal life has just made Charlotte better.
I don’t know if this is gonna be worded correctly, but I feel like I spent so many years trying to save my brother and then ultimately he saved me when he passed away and I started wrestling because I wanted to wrestle with him and help him get him on the right path so really like my brother paid the biggest price.
And the pressure of being Ric Flair is like.
Unimaginable, and so for me from 2015 to 2024.
What was hurting me was trying to be perfect in the public eye when I was going through so many battles of my own.
I mean, everyone has battles, so I’m not any different, you know, I didn’t go through anything better or worse, just saying like, hey, I am human.
And I’ve gone through loss, I’ve gone through personal things that have made me feel less than or embarrassed, but I think that was the sacrifice for me is like trying to be so perfect all the time and it lost who I was as a person.
But in my eyes when people kept saying that, you know , Charlotte Flair, she’s just a champion, like, like to me, I’m thinking, yeah, I’m the 1 fourteen-time women’s champion.
Like I redefined an entire generation, you’re telling me that’s not enough.
Even though that’s all I have thought about every second, every minute, every day was being the best, and that’s not enough.
And now where I am now knowing that I have this unmatched resume, but understanding like people just couldn’t connect to me because I was holding so much back.
So whether that was like opening up about being divorced or being embarrassed or being compared to my father or being insecure of, you know, whether it’s what I look like or how old I am, because unfortunately, Men seem to get better and women seem to get older.
See, she knows I hate elbow.
Wait.
This is Coach Ty.
Bye guys.
OK, um, what’s going on?
Coach T.
I, uh, I started with Ty.
You were part of the first class here?
Uh, you know, I’m the only one who still calls him Ty.
Yeah, you’re pretty much the only person alive that calls me Ty.
But once I met you as Ty, that’s all I know.
You can get away with it.
No one else can.
These years have gone by so fast.
And then when I was younger, when I thought of 40, I thought of the Golden Girls.
Like, that’s really what I thought of.
But now it’s like, not only did I have an opportunity in 2015 to be a part of the women’s evolution and redefine what it meant to be a female superstar, longer matches, no longer eye candy .
Now I’m here, it’s, it’s going, OK, well, I have another opportunity to help bridge the gap and redefine what success means for long-term female careers in professional wrestling.
I, I hope that I bridge that gap.
In a male dominated world where before it was like everyone’s got to be 25, women are disposable.
No, we’re not.
Keep talking.
Bone, spear, back handspring, spear, and she’s doing this?
Do you see what I’m saying?
Yeah, I’m gonna disagree with you.
You think she should take a big, I, you’re, you’re, you’re who you are, you’re Charlotte Flair.
The one thing about building my character, Charlotte, is I have fallen in love with the process, so I feel like I’m at the best I’ve ever been.
Like, oh, now I’m just getting good, now I’m just understanding the audience, now I’m just understanding the actual psychology of being in the moment and not letting nerves take over.
I do get called the measuring stick, but I think because I don’t take that for granted that I still go to work thinking that I have to earn my spot.
There’s always someone more hungry, younger, faster.
The product continues to evolve, so it’s me not just resting on what I’ve done, it’s going , what am I gonna do next?
And I think that’s so important.
What would I be the most proud of?
Oh.
Continuing my father’s legacy.
And living out a dream that my brother had for so many years.
