Charlotte Flair will return to WWE SmackDown this Friday as the NXT Women’s Champion, and here are three possible segments for The Queen.
There is no doubt that Charlotte Flair is one of the most important wrestlers in the recent history of WWE SmackDown. Her SmackDown Women’s Championship feud with Becky Lynch in 2018 helped set the scene for Becky’s rise to superstardom, and the two superstars had one of the best matches of all time at Evolution.
The Queen will make an appearance on this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown as part of the brand split rule, though Charlotte has been changing the game already as a Raw-signed superstar holding the NXT Women’s Title. She won the title by defeating Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 36 after choosing the Black and Gold brand’s championship as her title chase of choice following a surprise Royal Rumble victory.
She was also recently the SmackDown Women’s Champion in the Fall, briefly winning the title back from Bayley, who cashed in on her successfully after The Queen beat Becky at Money in the Bank 2019, before dropping it again.
In total, she’s held the Blue Brand’s prestigious championship five times in her career – more than any other title she’d held in WWE.
Here are three possible segments for Charlotte Flair when she returns to Friday Night SmackDown this week.
Champion vs. Champion segment
On Raw, Drew McIntyre and Andrade threw it back to their NXT Championship rivalry by having a champion vs. champion match. McIntyre disposed of Andrade easily as the WWE Champion facing the United States Champion, but it was an entertaining match that got us all nostalgic.
Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley has been done several times before on Raw and SmackDown, including in Fall 2019 when the two traded title wins in the aftermath of Bayley’s emotional Money in the Bank cash-in on Charlotte.
That said, it’s not out of the question for WWE to pull a champion vs. champion segment instead of a match. They could do a match between Bayley and Charlotte, but it’s been done a ton of times and neither can afford a loss. So do we really want to see a non-finish?
But a segment could be thoroughly entertaining. Sasha Banks and Bayely are the big stars on SmackDown after Charlotte went to Raw during the 2019 WWE Draft, so when someone of the Queen’s star status heads over to the Blue Brand for a one-off, they almost have to interact with the Boss’N’Hug Connection. Expect to see no love lost among these legendary wrestlers…
Charlotte is followed by NXT stars
Charlotte Flair had a match with Io Shirai on last week’s episode of NXT for the NXT Women’s Championship, and the match ended in a disqualification when an irate Queen hit the Genius of the Sky with a kendo stick (aka Ken!)
The Queen has been known to do this before, but Shirai won’t let the dominant champion get away with those actions lightly. Although we have yet to see what will happen to Charlotte on the following episode of the Black and Gold brand, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Io join Flair in making some noise on SmackDown with a sneak attack.
WWE wants to elevate all the brands and is using a new twist on the brand split to allow for more star power among the shows, hence why Charlotte is appearing on the Blue Brand in the first place.
Another wrestler who has appeared between NXT and Raw, Rhea Ripley isn’t done with Charlotte either. She and Shirai got into it after Ripley confronted Charlotte during the attack, as she wants one more shot at the Queen to win back the NXT Women’s Title.
We could see Ripley and Shirai appear on Friday Night SmackDown. And we all know what Rhea is capable of when she appears on the Blue Brand…
A match with a former NXT star
Charlotte Flair is the definition of a fighting champion. She’s made that clear with her title defenses on NXT and Raw, including against up-and-coming stars Mia Yim and Liv Morgan, who have championship gold in their respective futures. Sure, she sometimes ends matches on a sour note when she gets frustrated – just ask Io Shirai – but she’ll take the fight on.
There are a number of former NXT stars on the WWE SmackDown roster, such as Carmella, Lacey Evans, and Dana Brooke. It would be within the scope of Charlotte’s character to enter SmackDown with the intent of proclaiming her greatness but to also willingly accept a challenge from another competitor hungry to go toe-to-toe with the Queen.
If there’s one thing Charlotte loves more than holding gold, it’s proving to the world and to the wrestlers in the locker room why she is the one holding the gold at the top of WWE. Charlotte is one of those wrestlers who will always have a target on her back for her greatness, but she has grown to embrace it.
So don’t be surprised if we see Charlotte wrestle against a competitor who is hungry to prove that they are worthy of pushing the Queen to her limit for one of the most coveted titles in modern professional wrestling, the NXT Women’s Championship.