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More Details On Where Charlotte Flair & Tiffany Stratton's WWE SmackDown Promo Went Wrong

Both Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair had backstage heat following their promo exchange this past Friday on WWE SmackDown.
Rick Ucchino|
Tiffany Stratton on SmackDown with Charlotte Flair
Tiffany Stratton on SmackDown with Charlotte Flair | WWE.co

WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair made headlines for all the wrong reasons this past Friday night.

Their promo exchange on SmackDown reportedly went way off the rails and dissolved into personal attacks against one another that were not in the script, nor were they cleared with creative ahead of time.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select has spoken to a number of people within WWE and has garnered a better understanding of where things went off the rails. The exchange got rolling when Charlotte adlibbed first by calling herself a nepo-queen.

"Which didn't garner much heat," Ross Sapp reported. "However, when Charlotte began mocking Tiffany Stratton's voice, a number of people backstage felt like Tiffany Stratton 'needed to fight back,' but that going personal to that degree without it being cleared was ill-advised."

Neither the line about Charlotte's recent divorce from fellow SmackDown star Andrade, nor Charlotte's accusations of Ludwig Kaiser (Stratton's real life significant other) being in her social media DM's were cleared by the creative team, according to Ross Sapp.

"Digital producers were instructed to edit the personal relationship references and Charlotte making fun of Tiffany's voice from the YouTube editions. The general reaction backstage was some confusion when Charlotte emulated Tiffany, and general "oh s---," when Tiffany and Charlotte got deeply personal."

Charlotte & Tiffany Stratton
Charlotte & Tiffany Stratton on SmackDown | WWE.com

While there was heat on both women for the segment Friday, as our Jon Alba reported over the weekend, Ross Sapp did not hear of any issues backstage after it was over.

Charlotte Flair is set to challenge Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Championship next weekend at WrestleMania 41.

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Rick Ucchino
RICK UCCHINO

Rick Ucchino is the Assistant Editor & Content Coordinator for The Takedown on SI. He also works full-time for 700WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio as a local news and sports anchor, in addition to his time covering the Cincinnati Bengals for Sirius XM. Rick has been on the professional wrestling beat since 2019, having provided coverage for a number of outlets, including Fightful, SB Nation’s Cageside Seats and the Bleav Podcast Network. With an educational background in theater, creative writing and journalism, Rick focuses primarily on the storytelling aspect of pro wrestling, but he’s no stranger to the squared circle himself. He had the privilege of training with former WWE & WCW cruiserweight Jimmy Wang Yang for nearly two years and retired early due to back issues with a perfect 1-0 record in singles competition. Rick is a married father of two incredibly adorable children, who are budding pro wrestling fans themselves. Much to the chagrin of their mother. You can reach Rick at rwucchino@gmail.com

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