Charlotte Flair Ready To Face Superstar Athletes At Their Own Game

The challenges stations include:

• NFL – QB Skills
• NBA - Around the World
• FIFA – Goal Scoring
• MLB - Pitching Accuracy
• NHL - Washer-Dryer Puck Shooting
• WWE - Superstar Entrance
• UFC – Striking Challenge
• Dicks Sporting Goods Golf – Closest to the Pin

Unfortunately for Flair, who was a D-1 player at Appalachian State, a volleyball skills contest is not on the docket. Although, she'll feel more than comfortable on the basketball court.

“That was my dad's favorite. I let him down when I chose volleyball (laughs), but he went with it. But I was better at volleyball than basketball. I was good at defense, not so much offense. [I played] softball too. So I feel the most confident with a pitch and shooting a basketball, soccer, not so much.”

Living life as a WWE Superstar for the past 13 years has not left Charlotte with a ton of free time to rediscover her old passions outside of the ring, or explore new ones, but a return to volleyball could potentially be in her future with WWE now under the TKO umbrella.

“During COVID I got to do what you would call pepper with one other person, where you'd pepper the ball back and forth. And that was so much fun. And then I met a group of people at the gym I go to who played grass volleyball, but I just never made it to play with them. But now that I have a little more free time with our schedule being a little less taxing, I really wanna pick up a hobby.”

The Queen has dabbled with horseback riding and salsa dancing in recent years, but the thought picking up volleyball again brought a smile to her face.

Flair played two seasons at App St. before giving it up and transferring to North Carolina State to finish out her education and earn her degree.

“I still love [volleyball],” Charlotte said. “I regret my decision to quit. In hindsight… I regret a lot of decisions, but if I could tell my younger self one thing, it would've been to relax more on the court. There was a big jump from high school to college and I really wish I had utilized those years.”

Charlotte was still able to learn quite a bit from her time as a collegiate athlete. Life lessons that she's able to apply today. Discipline and teamwork came top of mind. Then there was the time she spent bonding with her teammates.

"That's such a special time in college that I don't think, unless you play a sport or you're a part of a group activity, you really understand that competitive bond and wanting to win and the team morale.”

While competitors at the Fanatics Games will be moving through the course in pairs, there will be not be any team mentality as it's every man or woman for themselves when it comes to the score card.

The WWE portion of the festivities will see stars like 7-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady, Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow, actor and comedian Kevin Hart and a myriad of others step into the spotlight by performing their best Superstar entrances.

Charlotte Flair knows a thing or two about making a grand entrance. Best advice she can give to her competitors this weekend, is to just be themselves. Only crank up their personalities to eleven.

“I feel like a lot of the athletes have their own brand and their own charisma to them. So if they just bring themselves, I think everyone's gonna do just fine. It's just taking that charisma or that brand that they do have, that they built in their own sport, and magnifying it as much as they can when they come out to an entrance song.”

The Fanatics Games come just a few months after Charlotte made her return to WWE. She missed all of 2024 after she suffered a devastating knee injury that required surgery to repair her torn ACL, MCL and meniscus.

Physically she feels great, but Flair admits that the mental aspect of her comeback was the hardest obstacle to overcome during her run from winning the Royal Rumble to facing Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 41.

“I definitely was nervous when I came back,” The Queen admitted. “This was my first injury. It's the mental aspect of overthinking it when you're not actually in it. Like, when I'm not actually wrestling. I don't wanna do anything to get reinjured, because I don't want to be sidelined again. But in the ring I feel great. I still practice twice a week to stay in top-notch conditioning.”

That conditioning will certainly come in handy this weekend as she steps onto the field, court, course and any other surface required for this competition.

Anyone in the New York area interested in attending Fanatics Fest, there are tickets still available. Events get underway on Friday, June 20 and run through Sunday, June 22.