Backstage News On Original Plans For Charlotte Flair Prior To Hiatus

As noted, Charlotte Flair is currently on hiatus from WWE after a storyline injury from Nia Jax during an episode of RAW wrote her off television. Flair is reportedly set to undergo surgery and said she will only be gone for a "few weeks" from the company.

Apparently the plan for Charlotte before her hiatus was to continue her push and build towards a long-term rivalry with RAW Women's Champion Asuka, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio. This was reportedly why she continued to defeat NXT talent continuously without ever taking a pinfall loss to build the rising NXT stars. Wrestling Inc. first exclusively reported that Charlotte was done with NXT following dropping the title at NXT Takeover: In Your House last month.

Ultimately, plans changed, and Charlotte would only have a few matches against Asuka at the start of the summer, shortly before being written off of WWE TV.

As noted, Charlotte was the reigning NXT Women's Champion until Io Shirai defeated both she and Rhea Ripley in a triple threat match in the main event of NXT TakeOver: In Your House after Io pinned Rhea. When the title change first happened, Triple H told Wrestling Inc.'s own Nick Hausman that it was done in a very specific way to continue the story.

"That finish was done tonight, the way it was done was for a very specific reason," Triple H noted. "To me the whole rhetoric regarding Charlotte Flair and her dad and her name is garbage. She works as hard as anybody I've ever seen, she's a great performer, she deserved anything she's ever gotten and has.

"This was done for a very specific reason, for storytelling purposes. Hopefully, if we get to tell the story the way we want to over the coming months, three or four months from now, you'll go, 'I know exactly why they did the finish they did.'"