When Charlotte Flair defeated Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 36 to win the NXT Women’s Championship, she was utilized on all three WWE brands, setting her apart from the rest of the company’s roster. But with Flair losing her title to Io Shirai at NXT TakeOver: In Your House on Sunday, it appears that she’ll be sticking it out on Monday Night Raw going forward and not returning to the black-and-gold brand in the meantime.
Citing an unnamed source, Wrestling Inc . wrote on Monday that Flair is “actually done with NXT for the time being,” contrary to what was implied by the finish of Sunday’s contest at TakeOver: In Your House . The three-way match, which saw Flair defending her championship against Ripley and Shirai, ended with the 12-time women’s champion not taking the pin. This hinted that Flair might be moving on to a feud with Shirai following the pay-per-view, but with the new update in mind, it looks like WWE will be moving in a different direction when it comes to NXT’s women’s division.
In the immediate aftermath of her title loss, Flair competed on this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw , where she defeated reigning Raw Women’s Champion Asuka in a non-title match, as recapped by Cageside Seats . It’s not clear whether the two will be feuding for the title at some point in the near future, but as WWE executive Triple H recently remarked in an interview with Wrestling Inc ., Flair has “always” been best suited for the red brand.
“She’s been working all three brands lately, which has been awesome, but we’ll see. I’m not 100% sure of that, but I think in this moment that obviously just happened, I think we will see where that goes.”
EXCLUSIVE: After an INCREDIBLE victory over @WWEAsuka on #WWERaw , @MsCharlotteWWE wants to remind everyone that she is ?????? the main event! pic.twitter.com/zfLtJqYzmb
— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) June 9, 2020
In addition, Triple H talked about the finish of the NXT Women’s Championship match at In Your House: TakeOver , telling Wrestling Inc . that it was written that way for a “very specific reason.” While he didn’t delve into specifics, he stressed that it’s “garbage” for people to imply that Flair is getting a good push on WWE television because she’s the daughter of Hall of Famer Ric Flair. Triple H added that the 34-year-old “works as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen” and is deserving of everything she’s accomplished during her time in the company.
“Hopefully, if we get to tell the story the way we want to over the coming months, three or four months from now, you’ll go, ‘I know exactly why they did the finish they did,’” he continued.
