Heels, babyfaces, and shades of grey. There are individuals in professional wrestling who fall within all three and can move between them when necessary. Charlotte Flair is one of those performers that is best served being a heel. No matter how hard WWE attempts to present her as a babyface, it never plays out well. It’s time to embrace the role, Charlotte. Lean into the dark side.
On the February 3 episode of Monday Night Raw, Flair returned to the show for the first time in more than a year. The minute her music hit; fans gave a mixed response as boos were mixed in with cheers. Then Flair started speaking in typical babyface fashion, addressing her challenging return to the ring only for the reaction to get worse. The few cheers that were there were overrun with boos, even as Flair started to get emotional.
Flair responded as a true professional, switching her message and cadence into that more accustomed to that of a heel. One that sounds very natural for Flair as well. Fans attempted to cheer her for leaning into it, but Flair went further into her tangent.
Flair is a heel’s heel and the fans will never embrace her as otherwise. It was that same perception that led fans to cheer wildly when Becky Lynch turned on Flair back in 2018 after SummerSlam, turning herself into “The Man” and one of the biggest stars in the company. No matter how hard WWE attempted to get the fans behind Flair as the babyface in the angle, they were having no of it, further pushing Lynch into her meteoric rise that continues to this day.
WWE will always push Charlotte Flair as a top star and it seems like a large contingent of fans will always push back against that. Her videos on YouTube are being hit with a strong negative reaction. The video of her winning the match has 7,909 likes and 35,401 dislikes as of this writing. The video of her talking about her return during the press conference has 3,745 likes and 9,986 dislikes. Social media metrics are an important KPI for WWE, and while these numbers represent a segment of the hardcore fan base, they are still hard to ignore. Will WWE make any changes to how Flair is booked? Probably not, but it is clear how fans react to the former champion.
Much like her father, Charlotte Flair is best served being a heel in professional wrestling. The fans will continue to respond to her as such and she presents a more believable character in that role. Go full Darth Vader Charlotte Flair. There’s no reason to even try to play the other side.