Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series. WWE

Charlotte Flair Opens Up About WWE Creative Struggles In 2025

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Jon Alba | Last updated Jan 2, 2026 11:17 AM ET

Charlotte Flair had a polarizing start to 2025, but it turned out to be a year in which she became a true fan favorite across the WWE audience.

Flair missed more than a year of action with a torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus, an injury she suffered in a match against Asuka in December of 2023. She would make her return at the 2025 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event, entering at No. 27 and winning the match.

Flair would challenge and lose to then-WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania, a bout plagued by a controversial build.

Not long after her WrestleMania 41 loss, she found herself without any creative direction. She would take to The Players Tribune to pen an essay about her life, and as she revealed to Clutch Points, things would change shortly thereafter.

“I wrote the essay, and then Lexi [Alexa Bliss] had been pitching to partner with me,” Flair said in the interview. “And I had been such an isolated character for so long. And then Evolution happened. I couldn't have planned it better."

Flair noted that her WWE creative plans didn't extend past WrestleMania, which left her with a chance to tap more into her own authenticity.

“I had just gotten to a point where they had no creative for me after WrestleMania. What was next was to, I don't know, rebuild. And like [John] Cena said, ‘Don't be perfect, be you.'”

Teaming with Alexa Bliss

WWE

Bliss also made her return at the Royal Rumble that night, but she also did not have any immediate creative plans after potential involvement with the Wyatt Sicks fell through due to an injury to Bo Dallas.

Flair and Bliss would form a strange bedfellows-type partnership, eventually going on to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. They became immensely popular with the WWE fan base and have remained a unit since.

“We just got to a point where it was like, 'This feels really good, and it would feel really bad if we break them up,' because it's one thing to have odd couples, but I also think there was a little bit of hesitation because she [Bliss] is so beloved, whereas my character, at that point, was not,” Flair said.

“It was like, 'Will this even work or translate?' And it did. I think our real-life chemistry was able to shine on-camera, and then as we were connecting, it's like, 'Why would we break them up?'”