As the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. There are multiple former female WWE Superstars that fall into that category with many fans, such as AJ Lee, Trish Stratus, and The Bella Twins. Even as she is still an active wrestler, the presence of Charlotte Flair has been missing from the women’s division for a little over a year.
In December of 2023, Flair would be injured during a match on Friday Night SmackDown with Asuka, suffering from a torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus. It was subsequently reported that she would be out of action for nine months, missing the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble and WrestleMania XL. The rest of 2024 continued to pass by and there was still no sign of The Queen on television screens. Naturally, this led to speculation that she would return during Saturday Night’s Main Event in December, Monday Night Raw‘s Netflix premiere on January 6th, or be a surprise participant in this year’s Royal Rumble match.
Then just last week during the January 17th episode of SmackDown, a vignette would air advertising her impending comeback, re-solidifying her status as a member of Team Blue, where she had been featured on pre-injury, for the foreseeable future. And just last night, Flair announced herself as a participant in this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble. Things have changed since December 2023, which leads me to ask the question, “What’s next for Charlotte Flair?”
Challenging Tiffany Stratton for the Women’s Championship?
2024 was a good year to be Tiffany Stratton. Making the jump from the best women’s division in North America as a part of NXT to making a name for herself on the blue brand, Stratton quickly amassed much hype from the WWE Universe, leading to her going on to win the Women’s Money in the Bank match. The Buff Barbie also cozied up to Nia Jax, despite often being belittled by The Irresistible Force, staying by her side as Jax won the Women’s Championship from Bayley and asserted her dominance as the Queen of the Ring winner. With Stratton continuing to hold on to her MITB briefcase, the “will they/won’t they” of their partnership ultimately breaking down culminated in Stratton controversially cashing in her contract three weeks ago and winning the title from her former “friend”.
However, Stratton’s meteoric rise has happened all while Flair has been on the shelf. Flair has probably been watching her during that time, and comparisons could definitely be made personality-wise. Stratton is quite self-absorbed and opportunistic, but she is rather young in terms of her age and WWE career. The same can be said about Charlotte’s character during her tenure in NXT and much of her time on the main roster. Flair is now a veteran though, and Stratton’s attitude might remind herself of the woman she once was, and how that woman has become the legend we all know now. Stratton has additionally spoken positively of Flair’s work in the past, mentioning her as her inspiration to pursue professional wrestling. It’s a dream match that many fans would like to see, and it could very well happen should she win the Royal Rumble in a week’s time.
Running It Back With Rhea Ripley
Much of Raw’s main Women’s World Championship scene in 2024 revolved around the heated rivalry between Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan, and the resulting romantic escapades with Ripley’s ex-boyfriend and Morgan’s current man, Dominik Mysterio. Ripley is no stranger to Flair, having had many matches with each other going to back to 2020 at WrestleMania 36 during the pandemic, with a championship on the line in most of their battles. Their most well-received match by far though was at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium, where Ripley, then a member of The Judgement Day, defeated Flair to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship despite being a Raw Superstar, with the title eventually being renamed to the Women’s World Championship shortly thereafter.
Now that Rhea has regained her title at Raw’s Netflix premiere, is she ready to move past Liv once and for all and cross paths with Charlotte again?
Jade Cargill
Jade Cargill made headlines when she left AEW to sign with WWE in September 2023. Unfortunately, Cargill has only interacted with Flair once since then, and based on the clip above, the two didn’t exactly appear to be friends at first sight. Both known for their dominating physical prowess and athletic builds, only time will tell until these two eventually meet up in the ring. However, Cargill is currently out of action herself after being found laid out on the hood of a car during a November episode of SmackDown. Many believe the attacker(s) could be Naomi, the Meta Girls, or even Cargill’s own tag team partner Bianca Belair. But is The Queen just as likely to be a suspect?
The EST vs. The Queen
Bianca Belair has waged war with three of the Four Horsewomen at various times in her WWE career: Sasha Banks (now Mercedes Mone in AEW), Becky Lynch, and Bayley. That doesn’t mean her and Charlotte aren’t without their own history, however. The two have only ever fought three times in singles action, once on NXT in February 2020 and twice on Raw in October 2021. While the two were involved in a three-way feud with Asuka on SmackDown over the WWE Women’s Championship throughout the spring and summer of 2023, both The EST and The Queen have mainly worked as allies, competing together in tag team matches and even winning the Women’s WarGames match that year alongside Becky and Shotzi against Damage CTRL.
As they have both never had the chance to partake in a proper feud with one another, it’ll be interesting to see what goes down between them to set it all off.
What do you think is next for Charlotte? Let us know in the comments below.