Flair takes a look back at past matches.
On the marquee for night one of WrestleMania 39 was Charlotte Flair versus Rhea Ripley for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Ripley bested Flair and present day, the title has been remodeled and is now known as the WWE Women’s World Championship.
Flair looked back at the bout she had with Ripley while guest appearing on The Michael Kay Show. There was a point during their match when Flair took a German suplex and landed face first. She said that was not supposed to happen, but explained why she’s glad it did.
Rhea (Ripley) and I this past WrestleMania, had a move in there where for a second I’m like, oh, there’s my face in the mat. Ow (she laughed). That wasn’t supposed to happen. So I was like, God, I hope she doesn’t move, I hope she doesn’t move. Let me get my breath for a second and if you go back, it was like one of the best moments of the match was the suplex to my face when it wasn’t supposed to be that and I’m like, had that not happened, we wouldn’t have gotten those replays so to me, I’m so happy I landed flat on my face. It made the match that much better, so I needed it to breathe and we got to eventually where we were going…
Ripley and Flair have also clashed over the NXT Women’s Championship. Flair has held that title on two occasions and her first go-round came at NXT TakeOver 2014.
She faced Natalya for the vacant title. Flair feels if that match did not happen, people would not have taken her seriously.
Yes, I lost my brother, he (Ric Flair) lost his son but there was no talking about what I was doing (in wrestling). Until when he saw the match that Nattie and I had which had that match — and I tell Nattie this all the time — not happened, I don’t think anyone would have taken me serious.
The conversation then transitioned over to laying in stiff shots in the ring. Flair talked about having that type of understanding with Ronda Rousey. She brought up their match from Survivor Series 2018 and Flair says Rousey allowed for her to be as physical as she was in that match.
Ronda (Rousey), one time, this made my day too. Shayna (Baszler) said that one day, someone asked Ronda if I hit really hard and I think she was like, ‘Well if you accidentally hit her really hard, she’s gonna hit you really hard back.’ We’re very physical together. Ronda is — when I say she’s the baddest woman on the planet, that woman is so tough. That Survivor Series (2018) match we had, she let me beat the living — I mean, that’s all her. She made that possible so kudos to her. But when she said that, I was like, oh! She thinks I’m tough. If I get potatoed, you’re gonna get potatoed (she laughed)… If you wake me up, I’m gonna wake you up twice as hard.
On the 8/18 Friday Night SmackDown, Flair tagged with Bianca Belair and they defeated Bayley and WWE Women’s Champion IYO SKY. IYO cashed in her Money in the Bank contract at SummerSlam to become champion.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Michael Kay Show with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
