Featured Image Credit: WWE
Topics: WWE, Ric Flair, WrestleMania, Wrestling
Josh Lawless
WWE were forced to delete a video from their social media following a heated segment where two rivals reportedly went "off script".
After a stacked European tour, WWE returned to the United States for Smackdown on Friday at the Allstate Arena in Chicago.
The show was aired live on Netflix but one segment in particular caused a serious stir. Ahead of their showdown at WrestleMania in Las Vegas, WWE women's champion Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair went at one another in an intense war of words, having recently gone back and forth in a sit-down, split-screen interview.
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Royal Rumble winner Charlotte was loudly booed by the live crowd and looked uncomfortable with the jeers she received.
But towards the end things got deeply personal between the pair, with Stratton making a brutal dig at Flair, daughter of Hall of Famer Ric, going through divorce for the third time after recently splitting from fellow WWE superstar Andrade.
Just before dropping the microphone and exiting the ring, Stratton said: "When it’s all said and done, you’re going to be just like you are outside of the ring, alone! What is that record, like 0-3?”
A furious Charlotte fired back, "Is that why [Ludwig] Kaiser is in my DMs???" - referring to Stratton's real-life partner on the Raw brand.
According to WrestleVotes, a reliable insider account on X, the two did not follow the script for a good portion of the chaotic segment and their promo was supposed to play out differently.
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They wrote: "Charlotte & Tiffany said very little of what was in the rundown for them. Off script quite a bit."
As they do with all the key talking points on their events, WWE uploaded a clip of the segment on their official channels before it was removed.
It was then re-uploaded on X but the cut-throat lines were edited out in the two videos from the segment which were put out - suggesting they weren't planned.
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Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful said that: "WWE edited out all the personal jabs out of the digital version of the Tiffany Stratton-Charlotte Flair segment."
He later said that every source within the company he spoke to believes the two "went heavily off script".
Flair and Stratton will do battle for the women's title in one of the premier matches across two nights of WrestleMania at the Allegiant Stadium on April 19 and April 20.