Bishop Dyer Disputes Notion That Charlotte Flair Facing 'Greatness Hate' From WWE Fans

Anyone with eyes will agree that the build to Charlotte Flair vs. Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania 41 hasn't gone smoothly. But while most have attributed it to Flair and Stratton going off script, another factor has been the negative reaction Flair has received from fans, which some, like "Busted Open Radio's" Bully Ray, have attributed to fans disliking Flair because of how great she is.

That is not an opinion Bully's colleague, Bishop Dyer, shares. Appearing on "Busted Open" on Wednesday, Flair's former co-worker offered an alternate explanation for the boos she's receiving, theorizing that Flair only appearing some of the year has been an underrated factor.

"There was an injury in the mix of this, but it's been like the last three or four years where you don't see Charlotte until Rumble, and she wins the Rumble, goes to Mania, wins the title, does Backlash or maybe one more, and then disappears again until the Rumble," Dyer said. "It's kind of like, you know, a player not playing in the regular season, and only playing in the playoffs and Super Bowl."

Dyer continued, noting that Flair's absence not only alienates fans, but hurts her performance, in contrast to Stratton who is working every week.

"Her going away for 8 months of the year is not sharpening your tools," Dyer said. "It is not putting her on the pedestal that she is on going into WrestleMania. She's not up there with that. And I think they see Tiffany and go 'She's there every week. She's on the limited live events there. She's pushing it 24/7.' And this girl just walks in out of nowhere, goes 'I'm the big star. Step aside.' F**k you. That's my response. And I think that's the response of the audience." 

Dyer did reject the notion some fans have that Charlotte has "go away heat," stating that those who use the term often are unaware of what it means. At the same time, however, he did suggest that fans didn't want Charlotte around, citing his previous examples, as well as the fact that fans no longer feel she's as good as she was during the days she first burst onto the scene.

"I think she has heat right now where people are like 'We just don't want you here,'" Dyer said. "And it sucks, because she's awesome at what she does, when she wants to do it that way. You think about when it was her and it was Mercedes and it was Becky and Bayley. Think about those matches, and think about the ground breaking things those four women did. And the matches where, like, the Ronda, Charlotte, and Becky match. How epic is that? And you can't tell me Charlotte and Becky weren't pulling 90% of the weight in that match? But is that the same Charlotte you see now, as the Four Horsewoman Charlotte? It's not. It's a shell of it in my opinion. That's why it's not working, because people genuinely want to see Tiffany with somebody else."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription