Royalty runs in the family… and so does talent. Her name itself holds weight, as she’s daughter to the legendary Ric Flair who is deemed the greatest wrestler to ever grace the planet. While it’s not easy to thrive as a woman in the WWE world, Charlotte hails over 12 Women’s Championship belts, the result of hard work, dedication, and passion.
Flair has been repeatedly declared “the most decorated woman in sports entertainment.” The crazy part is, Flair got her start in wrestling after college at age 27, but being an athlete her entire life certainly helped. During that time, Charlotte was living out her late brother’s dreams of wanting to be a professional wrestler.
Now, Flair finds solace in the sport, performing and thriving in front of thousands and thousands of people. Originally picking up wrestling in an attempt to save her late brother’s drug addiction, Charlotte is now making him proud each and every day.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Flair via Zoom, who was busy prepping for the SummerSlam that following weekend. Read below as we discuss the title she holds, how she got her name, the training behind the sport, meeting her man at WWE, love for beauty and fashion, goals, and more!
**Why are you the most decorated woman in sports entertainment?**
I was the first woman to main an event, WrestleMania. I’ve held the most world championships in the history of WWE as a woman. I’m a ground-breaker, first woman to main event a RAW Smackdown on a major pay-per-view. That’s good. \[laughs\] I can continue but you get the point.
**Where are you from originally?**
Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s where the name \[comes from\]. My dad was billed from Charlotte, North Carolina. When I started, they said “Oh, this is Ric Flair’s kid. She’s not going to make it far, we’ll just name her Charlotte.” Charlotte is actually the Queen city. I said “Hey instead of Charlotte from Charlotte, can you guys say Charlotte from the Queen city?” It all worked out.
**What was a young Charlotte like growing up in there?**
I played sports and was a homebody. I ended up playing volleyball in college so this was never something I dreamed about growing up. I was a gymnast, then basketball, volleyball, ballet, did a little bit of jazz, and I was on the diving team. I did it all. I was always involved in group sports until I started wrestling after college.
**Where was the point where it clicked for you that you wanted to do this?**
It didn’t really click until I actually started. In 2012, I was in Miami at the Hall of Fame for WrestleMania. My dad was trying to get my brother on the right path because he wanted to be a professional wrestler. The agent with us at dinner said to me, “Hey, why aren’t you doing this?” I was 27 at the time. I don’t know, I never really thought about it. I was just doing personal training at the time. I thought “maybe they’re saying this to light a fire under my brother, to get him motivated. My brother said “oh you gotta do it with me.” I said “Uh, okay.”
3 months later, we reported to our developmental program called FCW, which is now NXT. Our developmental territory. I got there and I guess I was searching for something more with my life. I enjoyed personal training, but I knew I was meant for more. At the same time if I do this, maybe I can help my brother because he’s suffering from a drug addiction. Well I started and almost 8 months later my brother died. When he passed away, I dedicated my entire career to him.
He never got to see me wrestle. It’s crazy, this wasn’t something I ever dreamed about; it was his dream, not mine. I’d spent so much time trying to save his life, when ultimately he saved mine. I didn’t grow up putting on makeup and being glamorous, I grew up putting on knee pads. So I was able to bring that athletic side of myself, which at the time I thought wasn’t feminine, to get me to where I am today, succeeding in a male-dominated industry where gender doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all changed so much, and to be a part of that and to know that it’s all because of my brother, is a very rewarding experience. You never know where life’s going to take you or why things may be happening the way they are. Especially at 27, who would have ever thought that everything I went through would have led to this? I always tell people, “You don’t have to have it all figured out,” I sure as heck didn’t.
**What was the reality of taking on a new sport?**
Lucky for me, I grew up in Charlotte and lived in North Carolina my whole life. I went to Appalachian State, North Carolina State, both schools were in North Carolina. When I moved to Tampa, Florida, everything was so surreal. So different. I was scared. I thought to myself, “Am I doing the right thing? What am I doing? I’m personal training, I don’t know.” Even though my dad was known worldwide for this business and he meant a lot to the industry, that did not mean that I knew anything about the industry. My dad didn’t have me in that world, so I didn’t know what I was doing and had to learn everything from scratch. Before I started, I was going through the motions of life and something told me to do this, knowing it could potentially help my brother. When I started wrestling, I thought, “oh wow, I really do fit in. This is where I belonged the whole time.”
**What was that first moment where you thought: “Oh shit, this is what I’m made for!”**
When I first got there, I didn’t have any expectations. This was something other people have always wanted; they dreamt about it, had to work extremely hard to even get through the camp, to get a tryout, to get into the school. Here I am, showing up without a tryout. I’m sure people were thinking, “of course Ric Flair's daughter gets in.” But because I played sports my whole life, I said “wait, give me a chance.” I knew once we got into practice that I could earn everyone’s respect.
At first, I wasn’t even thinking about a character or performing. It was more thinking “I need to make friends, I want people to respect me.” It really clicked when I had my first match on NXT, which is our developmental system, but you have to make those steps. I won my first title, my NXT title, which put me on the map for people to start taking me seriously. That’s when it really clicked, about 2 years in. It really clicked because the first year, I was just training, then my brother died. After that, every second, every minute, every hour of the day I just worked harder and harder to improve.
**What is training like now?**
Oh thank God I don’t have to train. \[laughs\] I train in the ring. For instance, SummerSlam is this weekend so I’ll go to the ring privately and work on some new stuff. It’s one of the biggest shows of the year for us. WrestleMania is our Superbowl, but SummerSlam we’re expecting 55K people in Allegiant Stadium. For me, training now is more going to the gym, keeping my body in shape. It’s more of a mental thing, it’s my place to decompress and block out all the noise.
**How does it feel having so many eyes on you, so much attention? Do you thrive in that moment?**
I thrive when I’m under the lights. Outside, I’m very much super shy, to myself, very different from when I have my wrestling boots on. When I do have them on, I’m performing. I feed off the energy of the audience; there’s nothing like performing in front of a live crowd. Now I understand why people in this business never want to leave it, because being able to control the emotions of an audience is exhilarating. The largest audience I’ve ever performed in front of was in front of 101K people at AT&T Stadium. To feel the rush of that crowd and control their emotions, nothing compares to that.
**How does it feel to have so many events this summer and just balancing this and your personal life?**
One, I’m happy the world’s getting back to normal. The fans are the heartbeat of what we do. Yes it was fun performing in the ThunderDome, which we built for Monday Night RAWS and Smackdown, but not being able to gauge your performance with the feedback of a live audience is difficult. You can’t deny the power of a live crowd, so what you read online is online, but having that audience back knowing, “Okay, I know this is how they feel….” makes all the difference. Like I said, it’s the heartbeat of what we do. The WWE universe is the fans.
In terms of my personal life, my fiancé and I are two different companies. He’s a wrestler too. Luckily, I wrestle Saturday, Sunday, Monday in a different city every night. Then he wrestles Wednesday and Friday. I basically live out of my suitcase. I go to my cities, I go to his cities and vice versa. It’s a worldwind, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
**You guys met at WWE. Was it love at first sight?**
Oh yeah, it definitely was. \[laughs\] We met on a European tour almost 2 years ago. I didn’t even know his name, he’d only been in the States at that time for 2.5 years. He's from Mexico. He made the decision to leave and work for another company a couple months ago. I was devastated but it’s his dream, and wanting to hold someone back it wasn’t fair. I said “No, go, we’ll make it work.” And we are.
**What’s your ideal date night with Andrade?**
Getting really dressed up and going to a nice steakhouse. \[laughs\] Drinking lots of wine and sangria. This week now we have SummerSlam, but whatever city we’re in, the next night after a show we’ll find a nice restaurant and go pig out. If not we’ll do it in our hotel room, put on Netflix.
**You say your love language is food. What’s your favorite food?**
Sushi or Mexican, it’s a hard tie. Probably sushi and then Mexican. I swear I workout just to eat.
**Talk about your love for beauty and fashion as well.**
So I’m a huge face cream junky. Living on the road, always being in airplanes, working out, sweating, obviously TV makeup, there’s 4 different brands I always have with me for beauty. Makeup, I’m terrible at it, but my glam team that I have at WWE and a couple people outside of WWE are my go-to people. I still have to sometimes text them and say, “Hey, which brush do I use for foundation?” But I’m getting better. I still can’t put on eyelashes.
In terms of fashion, for me I focus much more on my entering fashion presence. Taking little bits and pieces of what’s popular right now, putting that into my ring attire. I spend so much time and effort on my robes. Two pay-per-views ago, I came out like Cruella De Vil because of the movie that had just come out. I had dalmatian gear on, the robe was black and white. So I have more fun in fashion with my ring attire. I’ve been working on new gear for the last month, I can’t wait to debut it.
**What can we expect?**
The most evil Marvel character you can think of.
**What’s your favorite Marvel character?**
Well he’s not my favorite, the guy I’m going to be, but probably Iron Man. I love Iron Man.
**Favorite place you’ve been? I know you love traveling as well.**
For different reasons, probably Xinjiang. With the network being new to China and having the opportunity to go there and open it for the press conference, then wrestling there, that’s the coolest place. I’ve been everywhere, I have my favorites. But Xinjiang was an amazing experience.
**Talk about the new merch you have with WWE**
I love this merch! I had just finished doing a content shoot and said, “I want to bring my character to life and do queen themed merch.” I ended up sending the pictures into work and we printed them on our official WWE shirts that just came out. Feels very Queen of the South, the other one feels very Mad Hatter. So make sure to order [Step To The Throne](https://shop.wwe.com/collections/charlotte-flair/products/charlotte-flair-step-to-the-throne-authentic-t-shirt) and [Hail To The Queen](https://shop.wwe.com/collections/charlotte-flair/products/charlotte-flair-hail-to-the-queen-authentic-t-shirt) WWE shirts!
**What is it that you want fans to take away from your story?**
To be unapologetic. To know that no matter where you are in life, you can always change the course. Especially for women, and men too: the ones that are crazy enough to say they’re going to do something are the ones that are going to do it. Nobody believed that women were going to main event at WrestleMania, but I kept saying it and saying it. When I did it, people said I was crazy or they thought I was arrogant because I said it. Find something you’re passionate about and take over.
Photographer: [Mario Barberio](https://instagram.com/mariobarberiophotos)
Stylist: King Troi
Glam: Brian Valentine
Hair: Andrew Hernandez
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