Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair swapped their respective WWE Women’s Championships on WWE SmackDown, and fans apparently weren’t the only ones who were unhappy with the segment.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider reports that Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair had a confrontation backstage following the show, with the issue stemming from the title swap between the champions. Per Johnson, Flair “voiced concerns” about the exchange before WWE SmackDown; she reportedly didn’t want to look weak, and she was also concerned that the swap would harm the perception of her title reign. Still, WWE went through with the segment as planned.
Johnson then noted that, during the swap itself, Flair threw the belt to the ground, which was not the planned direction; likewise, Lynch throwing her title at flair was not in the script.
During the Championship Exchange segment, there was a moment where Flair was to hand the belt to Becky but instead pulled it away and threw the belt on the mat, which was not the way that exchange was expected to go.
Though the segment got back on track and finished as intended, Johnson wrote that Flair and Lynch had a confrontation backstage due to Flair allegedly disrespecting Lynch by “trying to make her look bad,” per a source. Johnson noted that while this face-off was “heated”, it did not get physical.
Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT added additional details in a separate report; per his sources, he wrote that, in the segment, Charlotte Flair was supposed to try and play “cat and mouse” with the title, and Lynch was supposed to touch the championship, but a “timing error” caused the belt to fall to the floor.
McCarthy noted that Lynch, Flair and Sonya Deville, the (storyline) WWE official who moderated the swap, were unhappy with the situation. He also wrote that WWE officials were “concerned” about the subsequent confrontation between the two champions backstage before he stated that their friendship has been “strained” for a while now.
Additionally, McCarthy reports that Vince McMahon wasn’t pleased when Flair left gorilla position without talking to him. Overall, McCarthy wrote that “no one involved” was happy about the title switch segment; though it was discussed throughout the day, it still went on as planned.
Update: Johnson shared more information later in the day on Saturday in a new report; he wrote that Flair is being viewed as the one who was responsible for the title swap segment not going as intended. Per Johnson, Flair was not supposed to pull the RAW Women’s Championship from Flair; it was not part of the script whatsoever. He wrote that Flair pulled Lynch’s title away in an attempt to make it look like Lynch had been “one-upped.”
In the update, Johnson noted that Lynch was supposed to throw the title at Flair, whereas the initial report stated that this hadn’t been the case.
As for the fallout of the event, Johnson writes that there’s heat on Flair “in certain circles” for the way she treated Lynch in the segment. Reportedly, some of this heat also stems from the feeling that Flair took the focus off of Banks, who was meant to be built up as SmackDown’s top babyface, and put it back on herself and Lynch. Flair was also reportedly asked to leave the venue after the confrontation to prevent any further escalation.
Johnson additionally noted that Lynch isn’t facing heat for the situation, as it’s believed that ” she was pushed to a boiling point” ahead of the confrontation backstage. Within the locker room, Johnson writes that Lynch was perceived as standing up for herself.
Finally, Johnson reports that Flair is reportedly “very upset” about what transpired here, and he mentions the speculation that Andrade’s “FU WWE” tweet was a response to the confrontation between Flair and Lynch.
With yet another update on this situation, Fightful Select reports the original plan called for Lynch to grab the title from Flair and brag about being “Becky Two Belts” before she was forced to hand the title over. Flair disagreed with this direction, but she was told to stick to the script. It was noted that most of those involved already agreed the whole segment was going to be awkward, but then there was a shouting match backstage, with Charlotte claiming her dropping the title on the ground was accidental. Fightful also echoed PWInsider’s report that Flair was asked to leave the venue in an effort to diffuse the situation. It was pointed out by talkSPORT and Fightful that Flair took issues with certain bookings this week, specifically the finish of Raw, to “at least one person backstage.”
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