A Legendary Performer Falls Short on the Mic in Chicago

To say Friday’s episode of Smackdown in Chicago was eventful is an understatement.

We saw two No. 1 contender’s matches, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Paul Heyman shed light on one of the biggest storyline secrets in WWE over the past several months, Rey Fenix had a fantastic debut match against Nathan Frazer, and Charlotte Flair—the greatest female Superstar in history—got absolutely cooked on the microphone.

Charlotte is headed for a Women’s World Championship match with Tiffany Stratton, and quite honestly, their feud has lacked some pizazz and flavor. Things changed on Friday.

Some fans believe it was a shoot, and there’s good reason. In any case, Stratton smoked Flair as the latter was overtaken by a hostile Chicago crowd that intimidated her off her podium.

Loud boos—we’re talking Dirty Dominik Mysterio-level jeers—appeared to have Charlotte shook. She couldn’t get any of her lines out, and meanwhile, Stratton rocked her with barbs that pulled no punches.

Are you done, Stratton asked as Flair’s opening overture seemed abbreviated by the crowd.

“Wade [Barrett], did she get her Wooo in? Listen, Charlotte, your biggest competitor has never been within this ring, your biggest competitor has always been them. And no matter how hard you try, no matter how long you’re out for, that’s a battle that you’ll never win. And you love to put this facade on, like nothing gets to you, like you’re above everybody else, and then you’re crying on some boo-hoo talk show. Which one is it, Charlotte? The saddest part about all of this is, no matter how many titles you win, you can break all the records, but when it’s said and done, you’ll always come second to your daddy, Ric Flair. And at WrestleMania, you’re going to come second to me, Tiffany Stratton. Do you hear that? That’s power.”

Consider this: this entire mic session happened after Stratton strolled to the ring wearing an outfit that was very similar to what Flair was wearing. No one commented on it during the broadcast, but it seemed like it was done to show up the older Superstar.

As Flair continued to labor to get a word in over the booing crowd, Stratton went in for the kill.

“What’s the matter, Charlotte, cat caught your tongue?” she asked facetiously.

Charlotte literally backed into the corner and submitted to the crowd’s bullying, and gave Stratton the floor. The champion went in harder.

“Charlotte, at 25 years old, what were you doing?” Stratton asked rhetorically. “You were trying to be a volleyball player drinking in your daddy’s basement. And what am I doing at 25 years old, I’m walking into WrestleMania as the WWE Women’s Champion. You say this is just another match to you, seems like I’ve gotten to you, Charlotte. And your WrestleMania record may be 4-3, and you may be the queen inside of the ring, but outside of the ring, you ain’t the queen of s###.”

As Stratton uttered the last line, her already nasally voice squeaked even more than normal, and Charlotte thought it might be time to try to regain control of the segment, but she was wrong.

Stratton fired back, “And for 16 more days, you get to call yourself WWE least favorite nepo baby, congratulations.”

Flair again attempted to inject her dominance: “Nepo Queen! Number one nepo, baby.” Again, Stratton rejected her attempt like Dikembe Mutombo in the paint.

“And when I beat you at WrestleMania, Charlotte, and when it’s all said and done, you’re gonna be just like you are outside the ring, alone,” Stratton said. “What is that record? 0-3. WOOO!”

That was a shot at Charlotte’s recent divorce to WWE Superstar Andrade. Stratton hopped out of the ring after dropping that bomb, and Flair tried to deliver a parting shot.

“Tiffany, is that why Kaiser in my DM’s?”

For those who are unaware, WWE Superstar, Ludwig Kaiser is Stratton’s real-life boyfriend.

Wow. Here is a look at the video of the segment.

There have been rumors Flair went off script to bury Stratton’s mic sessions earlier in the feud. Perhaps this was the young champion’s way to get payback. If so, it worked, and it made this feud a lot more interesting.

Between the fiery darts Stratton let off and the way the crowd destroyed Flair, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her have a worse day on WWE programming from a performance standpoint.

Fans had a lot to say about the segment.

One commenter on X said:

“Tiff been getting grilled so bad they couldn’t let Charlotte even speak a word.. Then tiff went below the belt with the divorces. That was kinda weak ngl”

A second one said:

A third commenter said:

“I’m convinced they don’t like each other in real life… this about to become Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels “Sunny Days” real quick.”

A fourth commenter said:

“That just brought some much-needed life into this feud.”

I concur.

Here is a look at all of the results from Smackdown.

• Rey Fenix def. Nathan Frazer via pinfall
• Berto will face Fenix next week on Smackdown.
• LA Knight def. Tama Tonga via pinfall.
• A tag team gauntlet next week will determine the No. 1 contenders for Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez’s WWE Women’s Tag-Team titles.
• Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) def. vs. #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) via pinfall to become the No. 1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team championships.
• Naomi def. B-Fab via pinfall. After the match–and before–Naomi brawled with Jade Cargill’. Nick Aldis made the Naomi vs. Cargill match for WrestleMania.
• Kevin Owens pulled out of WrestleMania 41 with a neck injury. It seemed legit. Randy Orton came out and hit Nick Aldis with an RKO when he learned he didn’t have an opponent. It’s clear, that’ll likely change.
• Jacob Fatu def. Braun Strowman in a Last Man Standing match to become the No. 1 contender for LA Knight’s United States championship at WrestleMania 41.
• CM Punk revealed the favor he needs from Paul Heyman. He wants Heyman to be in his corner for the main event at WrestleMania 41, and the Wise Man obliged. Reigns grabbed Heyman and Punk attacked him from behind and hit the former with a GTS.

This was an excellent episode and the latest great building block toward a historic WrestleMania.