Charlotte Flair


Ashley Elizabeth Fliehr is an American professional wrestler, author and actress. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Charlotte Flair. A second generation professional wrestler, she is the daughter of Ric Flair.
In 2012, Fliehr began training with WWE, debuting in its developmental brand NXT in 2013. In 2014, she won the NXT Women's Championship and was named Rookie of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Flair was promoted to WWE's main roster in 2015, going on to hold the Divas Championship once, the Raw Women's Championship four times - of which she was the inaugural holder, the SmackDown Women's Championship a record five times, and would win the NXT Women's Title a second time in 2020 making her a record 12-time women's world champion. Flair also won the 2020 Women's Royal Rumble match.
In 2016, PWI readers voted Flair both Woman of the Year and that year's world's top female professional wrestler. Flair became the first woman to headline a WWE pay-per-view event in October 2016 and one of three women to headline WrestleMania, WWE's flagship annual event, in April 2019.

Early life

Fliehr was born in Charlotte, North Carolina to Ric Flair and his then-wife Elizabeth Harrell. She has an older half-sister, Megan, and an older half-brother, David, while her younger brother Reid died on March 29, 2013. Fliehr won two NCHSAA 4 A-State championships for volleyball during her time at Providence High School and was team captain and player of the year in 2004-2005. She attended Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, playing volleyball in the 2005 and 2006 seasons before transferring to North Carolina State University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in public relations in Spring 2008 while also being a certified personal trainer prior to becoming a wrestler.
Flair was ringside for the December 6, 2004 episode of Raw in her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, where Lita and Trish Stratus competed in the main event for the WWE Women's Championship. Almost 12 years later, on July 25, 2016, Flair herself and rival Sasha Banks would do the same, marking only the third time a Women's Championship match main evented Raw.

Professional wrestling career

World Championship Wrestling (2000)

In 2000, Flair made her first appearances in professional wrestling at the age of 14, appearing with her father in World Championship Wrestling as Ashley Flair during his feud with Vince Russo and her half-brother David. On the May 15 episode of Monday Nitro, Flair appeared in a vignette in which Russo, David and Daffney invaded the Flair family home until being confronted by Flair, her mother Beth, and her brother Reid. At The Great American Bash on June 11, Flair was at ringside for a retirement match between Ric and David. After Russo attempted to interfere in the match on David's behalf, she and her brother Reid attacked him and handcuffed him, enabling their father to go on to defeat David. On the following evening's episode of Monday Nitro, David and Russo faced Ric in a handicap match with the Flair family once again at ringside. Flair attempted to interfere on her father's behalf, but was restrained by R&B Security, Russo's henchmen, allowing David and Russo to defeat Ric and partially shave his head.

WWE

Early career and The BFFs (2012–2014)

On May 17, 2012, she signed a developmental contract with WWE and trained under Lodi in North Carolina before joining NXT, the WWE developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. Her trainers in NXT included Sara Del Rey. Fliehr adopted the ring name Charlotte and had her first televised singles match on the July 17, 2013 episode of NXT, where she defeated Bayley. In late 2013, Charlotte formed a tag team with Bayley, and the two defeated Aksana and Alicia Fox on the September 4 episode of NXT. On the October 10 episode of NXT, Bayley accompanied Charlotte to a match against Santana Garrett, which she won, but during the match The BFFs—Beautiful, Fierce Females came to the ring and attempted to convince Bayley to join them, much to Charlotte's annoyance.
On the November 13 episode of NXT, Charlotte attacked Bayley and joined the BFFs, establishing herself as a villainess in the process. After a two-month absence due to a legit injury, Charlotte returned on the January 22, 2014, episode of NXT and began accompanying Rae and Banks to their matches. In February, Charlotte confronted and challenged NXT Women's Champion Paige during an interview with Renee Young. Following Rae's elevation to WWE's main roster, Charlotte and Banks went on to feud with Bayley, who formed an alliance with Natalya, who defeated Charlotte by disqualification after Banks interfered on the March 27 episode of NXT. On April 6 at WrestleMania XXX, she appeared alongside Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss in Triple H's entrance in his match against Daniel Bryan. The feud between Charlotte and Paige ended on the April 24 episode of NXT, when Charlotte and Banks defeated Emma and Paige, with Charlotte scoring the pinfall over Paige.

NXT Women's Champion (2014–2015)

In early May, Charlotte competed in an eight-woman tournament for the vacant NXT Women's Championship, defeating Emma in the first round, Alexa Bliss in the semifinals and Natalya in the finals at NXT TakeOver on May 29, 2014, to win the NXT Women's Championship for the first time in her career, her first championship win in the WWE. After a four-month absence from the show, Summer Rae returned on the June 6 episode of NXT, distracting Bayley and allowing Charlotte to defeat her, after which the BFFs attempted to attack Bayley, only to be chased away by Emma and the returning Paige. The altercation prompted a six-woman tag team match on the June 12 episode of NXT, which the BFFs lost after Bayley pinned Charlotte. On the July 3 episode of NXT, Charlotte got a measure of retribution over Bayley in a tag team match, where she and Sasha Banks defeated Bayley and Becky Lynch. After the match Charlotte left Banks to get attacked by Bayley, with Banks officially disbanding the BFFs in a backstage segment later that night.
On the July 24 episode of NXT, Charlotte successfully defended the women's championship against Summer Rae. Charlotte then went on to retain against Bayley at on September 11, after which she stopped Banks from attacking Bayley afterwards, and after defeating Bayley in a rematch on October 2 episode of NXT, she raised Bayley's arm before they shared a hug and shook hands, thus turning Charlotte back into a fan favorite character. Following this, Charlotte and Bayley feuded with Banks and her partner Becky Lynch throughout the following several weeks. Charlotte made her first appearance on WWE's main roster on the Slammy Awards special episode of Raw on December 8, where she lost to Natalya in a non-title match. Charlotte retained the NXT Women's Championship against Banks at on December 11, and in rematches that took place on the December 25 and the January 21, 2015, episodes of NXT, respectively. At on February 11, Charlotte dropped the championship to Banks in a fatal four-way match that also involved Bayley and Becky Lynch, ending her reign at 258 days. She failed to regain the championship in a rematch against Banks that took place on the March 4 episode of NXT.
At on May 20, Charlotte teamed up with Bayley to defeat Emma and Dana Brooke. After defeating Emma and Brooke again on the July 8 episode of NXT, this time teaming with her rival Sasha Banks, Charlotte challenged Banks to an NXT Women's Championship match, which Banks accepted. They had their championship match the following week on the July 15 episode of NXT, in which Banks retained the championship, and afterwards the two shared a hug and Banks raised Charlotte's hand as a sign of respect.

Women's Revolution (2015–2016)

On the July 13, 2015, episode of Raw, Stephanie McMahon called for a "revolution" in the Divas division, subsequently introducing Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks as members of the main roster. Charlotte and Lynch allied with Paige, who was engaged in a feud with Team Bella, while Banks allied with Tamina and Naomi, starting a rivalry between the three teams. The trio of Charlotte, Lynch, and Paige was dubbed Team PCB after the first name initials of each wrestler. On July 19 at Battleground, Charlotte defeated Banks and Brie Bella in a triple threat match in her WWE pay-per-view debut. The three teams would ultimately face off at SummerSlam in a three team elimination match, which Charlotte's team won after Lynch pinned Brie Bella.
On the August 31 episode of Raw, Charlotte overcame fellow Team PCB members' records in the first ever Divas Beat the Clock challenge, and was named the new number one contender to Nikki Bella's Divas Championship. Her title match against Nikki Bella, initially advertised for Night of Champions, took place on the September 14 episode of Raw, so Charlotte could stop Bella from surpassing AJ Lee's record and becoming the longest-reigning Divas Champion. Charlotte won the match by disqualification after she pinned Brie due to the twins switching places, causing Nikki to retain her title and beat the record in the process. On September 20 at Night of Champions, Charlotte defeated Nikki in a rematch to win the Divas Championship for the first time. During Charlotte's celebration the following night on Raw, Paige cut a worked shoot promo and turned on her and Lynch, berating them and the Divas division. Throughout October, Paige acted as if she wanted to reconcile with Lynch and Charlotte, only to attack them both and cement her departure from the team, just a night after Charlotte successfully retained her championship against Nikki Bella at Hell in a Cell. In the end of 2015, Charlotte successfully defended her title against Paige on three different occasions—at Survivor Series on November 22, in a rematch the following night on Raw and at on December 13.
In November, Charlotte began displaying villainous traits after defeating her friend Becky Lynch by feigning a leg injury, followed by a distraction provided by her father. Throughout December, the relationship between Charlotte and Lynch continued to strain, and after losing to her on the January 4, 2016 episode Raw, Charlotte attacked Lynch and solidified her villainous turn in the process for the first time since 2014 in NXT. Charlotte successfully retained the Divas Championship against Lynch with help from her father three days later on SmackDown, and at the Royal Rumble on January 24. In February, after she lost to her in a non–title match, Brie Bella received a title match at Fastlane, where Charlotte once again successfully retained her title. A few weeks later, on March 12 at Roadblock, Charlotte retained the title against Natalya. Also in March, Charlotte caused a number one contender's match between Lynch and Banks to end in a no contest after she attacked both contenders. As a result, a triple threat match between Charlotte, Banks and Lynch for the Divas Championship was scheduled for WrestleMania 32. At the event, a new WWE Women's Championship replaced the Divas Championship and Charlotte defeated Banks and Lynch to become the inaugural champion.

Raw Women's Champion (2016–2017)

Right after WrestleMania 32, Charlotte began a feud with Natalya, successfully defending the title against her on the April 11, 2016 episode of Raw. Due to the disqualification ending, a rematch took place at Payback on May 1, where she defeated Natalya after referee Charles Robinson ended the match as Charlotte held Natalya in the sharpshooter, even though Natalya had not submitted, in a reference to the infamous "shoot screwjob" the Montreal Screwjob. After the match, both Natalya and Bret Hart, who was in Natalya's corner, applied the Sharpshooter on Charlotte and Ric Flair. At Extreme Rules on May 22, Charlotte retained her title against Natalya in a submission match after a distraction provided by Dana Brooke who was dressed as Flair. The following night on Raw, Charlotte turned on her father by claiming she no longer needed him, further aligning herself with Brooke who would be dubbed as her protege. At Money in the Bank on June 19, Charlotte and Brooke defeated Natalya and Lynch in a tag team match. On the June 20 episode of Raw, Charlotte retained her title over Paige with help of Brooke, with the two attacking Paige after the match, which ended with Banks making the save. This led to a tag team match the following week, where Banks and Paige scored the victory. On July 24 at Battleground, Charlotte and Brooke were defeated by Banks and the debuting Bayley.
After being drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2016 WWE draft on July 19, Charlotte made her first appearance for the brand on the July 25 episode of Raw, where she lost the WWE Women's Championship to Sasha Banks, ending her reign at 113 days. On August 21 at SummerSlam, Charlotte competed against Banks in a rematch for the title, in which Flair was victorious, thus becoming a two-time champion. At Clash of Champions on September 25, Charlotte retained the title in a triple threat match against Banks and Bayley. However, Charlotte dropped the title to Banks once again in the main event of the October 3 episode of Raw. Around this time, Charlotte's ring name was lengthened to Charlotte Flair.
At Hell in a Cell on October 30, Flair regained the title from Banks in the first ever women's Hell in a Cell match to become a three-time women's champion. This was also the first time a women's match was the last match on a WWE pay-per-view. The following night on Raw, Flair was revealed as captain of Team Raw for Survivor Series on November 20, where Team Raw defeated Team SmackDown with Flair and Bayley being the survivors for Team Raw. On the November 28 episode of Raw, Flair competed against Banks in a falls count anywhere match, where Banks defeated Flair for the title, after which Ric Flair came out and celebrated with Banks. A 30-minute iron man match between the two was scheduled for on December 18, which resulted in a 2–2 draw, but Flair defeated Banks 3–2 in sudden death overtime, becoming a record four-time Raw Women's Champion as well as ending their six months feud since it was stipulated that Banks could not invoke her rematch clause after that. Shortly after, Flair started a feud with Bayley who managed to defeat her in two non-title matches since her main roster debut in August. This led to a title match between the two that took place at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017, where Flair successfully retained the title over Bayley.
On the February 13 episode of Raw, Flair dropped the title to Bayley in the main event. She later failed to regain the title in a rematch against Bayley at Fastlane on March 5, marking her first pay-per-view singles match loss after 16 singles victories. Also in March, Flair ended her association with Brooke and defeated her in a singles match. On April 2, at WrestleMania 33, Flair competed in a four-way elimination match against Bayley, Banks, and Nia Jax, being the last woman eliminated by eventual winner Bayley. On the April 10 episode of Raw, Flair was defeated by Jax in her final match for the brand.

SmackDown Women's Champion (2017–2018)

On April 11, 2017, Flair was moved to SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. The following week on SmackDown Live, she defeated SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi in a non-title match, to earn a title opportunity, which ended in a no-contest after The Welcoming Committee attacked both contestants. This match made Flair the first woman in WWE history to ever compete in the main events of Raw, SmackDown and a WWE pay-per-view. In May, Flair aligned with Becky Lynch and Naomi against The Welcoming Committee, turning face in the process. At Backlash, The Welcoming Committee defeated Flair, Naomi and Lynch in a six-woman tag team match when the latter submitted to Natalya's sharpshooter. Shortly afterwards, Flair competed at Money in the Bank, as part of the first ever women's money in the bank ladder match, which was won by Carmella. On July 23, at Battleground, Flair competed in a five-way elimination match to determine the number one contender for the championship but was the last woman eliminated eventual winner Natalya.
After taking a hiatus to assist her father in his legit health issues, Flair returned to SmackDown on September 19, thanking the WWE Universe for her family's support. Later that night, she won a fatal four-way match to become the number one contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship. On October 8, at Hell in a Cell, Natalya retained her title over Flair as she attacked her with a steel chair, causing a disqualification victory for Flair. On the November 14 episode of SmackDown, Flair defeated Natalya in a rematch to win the title in her hometown, becoming the first woman's wrestler to win the Divas, NXT, Raw and SmackDown Women's Championship. With the win, Flair replaced Natalya in the interbrand champion vs. champion match against Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss at Survivor Series, which Flair won. A month later, at Clash of Champions on December 17, Flair retained the title against Natalya in a lumberjack match.
Towards the end of 2017, Flair once again aligned with Becky Lynch and Naomi to feud with debuting The Riott Squad, after the three attacked them shortly after their debut. At Fastlane on March 11, 2018, Flair defeated Ruby Riott to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship and was subsequently challenged by Royal Rumble winner Asuka. Flair won the ensuing title match at WrestleMania 34 by making Asuka submit, ending the challenger's undefeated streak at 914 days in the process. Two days after later, on the April 10 episode of SmackDown, The IIconics attacked Flair during a promo. Carmella used the opportunity to cash in her Money in the Bank contract and won the championship. Flair failed to regain the title in a rematch on May 6 at Backlash. In June, Flair competed in her second Money in the Bank ladder match, which was ultimately won by Alexa Bliss. After the event, Flair took time off to undergo a surgery due to a ruptured breast implant.

Feud with Becky Lynch (2018–2019)

Flair returned on the July 31 episode of SmackDown, saving Becky Lynch from an attack by Carmella. She later defeated Carmella to be inserted into the championship match between Carmella and Lynch SummerSlam, making it a triple-threat match. At the event, Flair pinned Lynch to win the SmackDown Women's Championship for a second time in her career. With the win, Flair became the second woman in WWE history to hold seven women's championships, alongside WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus. After the match, Lynch attacked Flair, igniting a feud between the two, which led to a match at Hell in a Cell on September 16, in which Flair lost the title to Lynch. Flair defeated Lynch via disqualification at Super Show-Down and fought her in a rematch two days later, on the October 8 episode of SmackDown, which ended in a double count-out. As a result of this, Flair received another title opportunity against Lynch in the first Last Woman Standing match at Evolution, in which Lynch defeated Flair.
In November, Flair was picked by Becky Lynch as her replacement in a match against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series, which she lost via disqualification after brutally attacking Rousey with a kendo stick and a chair, thus turning into a tweener in the process. The following month, on December 16 at the pay-per-view, Flair competed in the first ever women's Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against both Lynch and Asuka, who would go on to win the match after Rousey pushed both Flair and Lynch off a ladder.
On January 27, 2019, at the Royal Rumble, Flair competed in the women's Royal Rumble match, lasting 50:01 minutes; she eliminated five women and was the final woman eliminated by the winner, Becky Lynch. As a result, Lynch earned a title match against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 35. However, in February, Vince McMahon suspended Lynch for 60 days and replaced her with Flair. In March, Lynch was reinstated. At Fastlane, she defeated Flair via disqualification, after Rousey attacked Lynch to give her the win, making the title match at WrestleMania a triple threat match. Just a few days before WrestleMania, on the March 26 episode of SmackDown, Flair defeated Asuka to win the SmackDown Women's Championship for a third time, becoming the only woman in WWE history to have won eight women's championships. At the event, in what was the first time that women main evented a WrestleMania event, Flair lost her championship in a Winner takes all for both her SmackDown and Ronda Rousey's Raw Women's Championships when Lynch pinned Rousey to win both titles.

Record-breaking reigns (2019–present)

Shortly after WrestleMania, Flair continued her feud with Lynch over the SmackDown Women's Championship, stating that she had not been defeated at WrestleMania. She earned a rematch by defeating Bayley and at Money in the Bank regained the title by defeating Lynch after an interference by Lacey Evans. After the match, the two continued to attack Lynch until Bayley made the save. Bayley, who had won the Money in the Bank contract earlier in the night, cashed-in and defeated Flair to end her reign at just 4 minutes and 52 seconds, Flair's shortest title reign of all time, and the shortest for that title respectively. After Money in the Bank, Lynch focused on defending her Raw championship, putting an end to the almost year–long feud between the two.
After a brief hiatus, Flair, returned on the July 16 episode of SmackDown. She called herself "the greatest female superstar of all time" a week later, and entered into a short storyline with WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus. At SummerSlam, Flair defeated Stratus by submission in what was the latter's second retirement match. After that win, Flair felt that she deserved an opportunity at the SmackDown Women's Championship and re-ignited her feud with Bayley. On September 15, at Clash of Champions, Bayley retained over Flair after she used an exposed turnbuckle. After she made Bayley submit during a tag team match, Flair earned herself another opportunity. On October 6, at Hell in a Cell, Flair defeated Bayley to win her record fifth SmackDown Women's Championship, her tenth women's championship on WWE's main roster. Five days later on SmackDown, Flair dropped the title back to Bayley.
As part of the 2019 draft, Flair was drafted to the Raw brand. In November, Flair was revealed as captain of Team Raw for Survivor Series, where Team Raw lost to Team SmackDown, after Team Raw member Asuka spit green mist in Flair's face, causing Flair to be eliminated. The following night on Raw, Flair lost to Asuka, with some assistance from her tag team partner, Kairi Sane. Flair then joined forces with Becky Lynch to face The Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in a TLC match at the, but the two were unsuccessful. The match saw Sane suffering a legitimate concussion mid-match. In a later interview, Flair addressed Sane's injury, stating: "Obviously Kairi was hurt, but in the match I'm just thinking: 'How do we keep people invested?'"
On January 26, 2020, at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Flair won the Royal Rumble match by lastly eliminating Shayna Baszler. Flair spent weeks teasing an announcement regarding her championship opponent at WrestleMania 36, leading to confrontations with NXT Women's Champion Rhea Ripley on Raw and NXT. At, after Ripley retained her championship against Bianca Belair, Flair attacked Ripley from behind and accepted Ripley's challenge to face her for the NXT Women's Championship at WrestleMania 36, and later attacked Belair. This marked the first time that the Rumble winner chose an NXT championship to challenge for at WrestleMania, which were previously ineligible, as well as marking the first time that an NXT championship would be defended at WrestleMania. At the event, Flair defeated Ripley to capture her second NXT Women's Championship, tying the record with Baszler, and marking her overall 12th women's title in WWE. At, Flair lost the NXT Women's Championship to Io Shirai in a triple threat match also involving Rhea Ripley, ending her reign at 63 days and making her second reign as champion the shortest reign in the championships history. Afterwards, Flair announced that she would be taking time-off to undergo another surgery on her breast implants.

Legacy

After winning the RAW Women's Championship 4 times, the SmackDown Women's Championship 5 times, the NXT Championship 2 times and the WWE Divas Championship 1 time, she is the most decorated women in WWE with 12 titles. Also, she became one of the two first women to headline a WWE pay-per-view event in October 2016 and one of three women to headline WrestleMania, WWE's flagship annual event, in April 2019. During her feud with Sasha Banks, they also were the first women to compete in a Hell in a Cell match
Flair's athletic skills have been praised several times.

Other media

Flair appeared in the January 2016 issue of Muscle & Fitness. Flair ranked 29th out of 50 in the 2017 Sports Illustrated fittest woman athletes of the year. In June 2018, Flair appeared in the ESPN Body 10 magazine.
Flair made her video game debut as a playable character in WWE 2K17 and has since appeared in WWE 2K18 and WWE 2K19.
In 2017, Flair portrayed Heather Rockrear in '.
Flair released Second Nature: The Legacy of Ric Flair and the Rise of Charlotte, co-written with her father and Brian Shields, author of the '. on September 19, 2017.

Personal life

Fliehr was arrested on September 5, 2008 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for assaulting a police officer after a fight involving her, her then-boyfriend, and her father. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, which was suspended to supervised probation and a $200 fine.
From May 2010 until February 2013, Fliehr was married to Riki Johnson. In Second Nature, a joint biography of her and her father released in late 2017, she revealed that she allegedly left Johnson after having been the victim of multiple domestic assaults. In October 2018, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Fliehr, author Brian Shields, her father, and WWE for "defamatory statements" that were written in the book. From 2013 to October 2015, Fliehr was married to Thomas Latimer, better known by his ring name Bram. Fliehr has been in a relationship with fellow WWE wrestler Manuel Andrade Oropeza, better known by the ring name Andrade. The couple got engaged on January 1, 2020.
Fliehr has multiple tattoos, including two hearts above her waistline, her first husband, Riki's name below her waistline, a heart on her left wrist, a quote from the Bible on the left side of her torso, that reads "guard your heart above all else, for it will determine the course of your life", a cross on the right side of her torso, and a quote on her right forearm, reading "a little patience..." from the Guns N' Roses song "Patience". The latter two are tributes to her late brother, Reid.

Filmography

Championships and accomplishments