Charlotte Flair returned to WWE at the Royal Rumble PLE to a hero's welcome...until she won the 30-woman Rumble match, and fans realised WWE was planning to give her another main event push.
It's not that they don't want to see her succeed; it's just that she's been in that position a lot over the years, and it didn't feel like the right time for The Queen to defeat Rhea Ripley or Tiffany Stratton (the backlash may have played a role in Tiffy eventually retaining her title at WrestleMania).
Talking to PEOPLE, the 14-time WWE Women's Champion said that, post-WrestleMania, she hopes to show fans a different side of herself.
"On the opposite side of WrestleMania, I think I will tap more into that and kind of try to bring me—Ashley, the real person—to Charlotte, because I do feel like Charlotte really isn’t, the character I made is not relatable."
"If I could be ‘Charlotte’ in my real life, I would," Flair explained. "In reality, if I wasn’t here right now, I’d be in sweats watching old episodes of Sex and the City. But no, I feel like at this stage in my career I’d like to pull the curtain back a little bit and show them like, hey I’ve been this hardcore, dominant b---- for however many years."
"But I’d like to also be able to high-five the kids as I walk down the aisle," she added, hinting at a possible babyface run. Whether that's something fans want is hard to say, though if Flair helps Stratton take on Nia Jax, for example, it might go some way in redeeming her character.
In the same interview, Flair reflected on what it's been like to talk openly about her divorce from WWE Superstar Andrade.
"I think a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because ‘Charlotte’ had to be so perfect and pristine all the time, and people couldn't separate the character and who I am in real life," she said. "So, getting all these things that have been really hard for me off of my chest, like, ‘This is who I am, accept me.'"
"It feels like I don’t have to—not necessarily hide—but I’m not worrying about, you know, ‘What’s going to happen today?’ Or in an interview, ‘Are they going to ask me and I’l have to pivot to something else?’ It’s like, this is the authentic me. And it feels really good," Flair concluded.
We'll see what happens, but WWE is bound to have big plans for Flair, even if she did fail to capture the WWE Women's Championship on the Grandest Stage of Them All.