Charlotte Flair On When She Decided To Enter The Wrestling Business

Charlotte was recently a guest at Ace Comic Con where she took part in a live interview for Lilian Garcia's podcast. Among the many topics discussed was whether watching Ric Flair's WrestleMania 24 match in the front row made her want to wrestle.

"Honestly, no. I always went to the shows and wanted to take my friends, or when I was in college bringing my volleyball team. But seeing the women during that time period, I played sports my whole life and was a tomboy, so I never saw myself as Stacy Kiebler, Trish Stratus, or Lita," revealed Charlotte. "I always told myself that I was athletic and think I can do the moves, but I didn't see myself as a diva so I don't know if that's kind of why I didn't really care about it."

Charlotte said it wasn't until the Four Horsemen were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012 that she thought about following in her father's footsteps. She attended with her brother Reid, who was already an aspiring wrestler, and Charlotte thought if she got into wrestling as well then it would light a fire under Reid.

"So literally three months after that I reported to NXT and, yeah, my dad was Ric Flair but I have no idea about the business," admitted Charlotte. "I didn't really even understand what my dad meant to the business until I got there. It's true though; I was like, why do these people not like me? What do they mean I'm just here because I'm Ric Flair's daughter?

"When Bayley talks about all of us being there at the right time...for me personally not having a wrestling background and getting to work with Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch and to show me the ropes and showing me all the passion that they brought in to being on the independent scene and wanting this since childhood and me being like, woah, what is this crazy world that I have missed out on that I fit into? So, really, it was just not until July of 2012 that I was like I really like this. It was really like that."

Charlotte mentioned Bayley, Banks and Lynch and those four comprise the Four Horsewomen of Wrestling. Charlotte talked about being part of that special group in NXT.

"I think it was just the right place and right time; NXT was just starting. You had a group of girls and Sara Del Ray was just hired so the first female coach and they were just giving us the opportunity to learn and to grow in our class," said Charlotte. "As Bayley said I don't think if we had not come in together and had somebody like Dusty Rhodes working with us and believing in us and seeing a character in each one of us even though we had no idea. I wasn't allowed to 'Woo!' or do the Figure-Four leg lock. When NXT started having the TakeOvers and Triple H started giving us the opportunity and more time to have an in-depth storyline we just ran with it and the more they kept giving us we just continued to deliver. The only thing is that it is go, go, go and you are so in the moment that you don't get to realize how far we've come. I just main evented WrestleMania and it still doesn't feel real because it's like, what's next?"

Charlotte, along with Lynch and Ronda Rousey, made history at WrestleMania 35 by being the first women to main event any WrestleMania. Charlotte talked about the lead-up to the show and the messages she received from others in the industry.

"It was just something that I had said so much in interviews that it was really happening," stated Charlotte. "Just even three years before that when I was saying it in interviews a couple of people would say that it's really cool that you want to main event WrestleMania but man, you're kind of arrogant, like that'll never happen. Then when it did happen those people messaged me and said, man, you guys did it."

Charlotte said that even though it was her and Lynch in the ring with Rousey, it could have easily been Bayley and Banks instead and that it took the entire women's locker room for this moment to happen. Because of that, Charlotte almost felt obliged to put on the best show possible for the other girls who helped them reach that point.

"For me, heading into WrestleMania, it wasn't so much the pressure of performing and being in the main event but it was like I want to make the girls happy in the locker room. I want to make them proud, and to have Bayley and Sasha Banks in the crowd watching and they were such instrumental parts in my career it was like I hope I make them proud if that makes any sense," stated Charlotte.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.