As most here probably already know, Ashley Fliehr, the WWE performer better known as Charlotte Flair, very recently released a book called 'Second Nature' with her father Ric Flair where they go through their life since Ric's retirement match and Charlotte's arrival to the WWE. Most of the reviews for the book I've seen so far are really positive and indicate the book is pretty frank and honest about their experiences. However this is not a review for the book itself for the simple reason that I have not read the book and thus don't really feel like I'm in a position to comment on what it contains.

However, as Charlotte has now been doing a lot media to advertise the book, I've seen a lot of her interviews pop up in the last two weeks on different wrestling podcasts that I either continuously or tangentially follow. As I ended up listening to several of these interviews, something that struck me was that this was actually pretty unique circumstance as usually wrestlers don't give in-depth interviews that often, but here we had Charlotte answer similar questions about the same era on different friends. And while I first expected to hear the exactly the same answers over multiple interviews, what actually ended up happening was that as the questions slightly changed or the general discussion flowed differently, she might actually go much deeper in to some answer in one interview that she basically glanced over in others. The end result was, for me, a really fascinating view not just to the performer and the character, but also to the industry itself.

Since majority of these comments and answers in these interviews did not break the news barrier on this site, and that was not meant as a criticism in anyway, I thought to collect some of the stuff I found interesting in to this fan post. It is important to point out that as this is a collection over several interviews, I'm really worried that I will get some details wrong, so people should feel free to correct me. Also, to give credit to sources, the three interviews I would really recommend listening to are the From the Top Rope, Sam Roberts and In This Corner podcast interviews. There was also a lot of stuff to put here, but these are just the ones that really stuck to me.

Charlotte puts an insane amount of attention to her entrance: So when Charlotte does entrance and slides in to the ring, there is a brief glance backwards towards her opponent(s). It's a small thing and most probably wouldn't actually remember her doing so if not directly pointed out. However, as this was mentioned in one interview almost as a joke, turns out that it is a carefully thought out detail which indicates that her character is checking what her opponents are doing while she herself is vulnerable to attack. Apparently every single aspect of her entrance is planned and she does adjustments based on what is the story and what are the character dynamics in the match. What makes this little foray in entrances so interesting to me is that I don't think Charlotte is the only one who gives as much thought for them and I'm willing to be that most of the top talent could go in to similar discussion about everything they do during their entrances.

They really read a lot of dirt sheets over at NXT: There doesn't seem to be a lot of, if any, communication between NXT talent and the WWE creative about their plans and potential. This means that the talent relies a lot on dirt sheets to try to figure out what is happening and where they stand in the company. Yeah, that sounds truly messed up.

Charlotte was fearful that she wasn't going to be called up to the main roster: There was about eight months after losing the NXT title before Charlotte arrived to Raw and while the fan base took it for granted that of course Charlotte was going there, because of that lack of communication, she had no such guarantees. She had been a major part, but now she really had nothing to do and they weren't telling her anything about the future plans.

What is even more striking to me when discussing this period, the reason Charlotte was concerned was that she was convinced that it was because how she looked, that she didn't fit to the Diva mold and really felt the appearance pressure. She has talked about those fears before, and if you go back how she looked during the NXT era and when she arrived to the main roster, you can almost see her trying to fit that certain look, to have that lean, non-threatening apperance instead of the powerful look she has now. It just feeds in to this larger discussion on her insecurities.

Charlotte likes being a heel because of the origin of the Queen Charlotte character: There's no denying that Charlotte's start at the main roster was a hot mess and the crowds were rejecting her hard. The specific moment when the character was born was TLC 2015 when the crowds boo'ed her out of the building after her match with Paige, although I just remembered it being utter silence, which affected her so deeply that she was crying in her hotel room about it afterwards. That was the moment that when the Queen character was born as something she wanted to be. Not a jerk, but someone who was completely unaffected by people's reactions, as long as there was a reaction, and who was driven by this unmatched confidence in her actions. It was also something that leaned on her being Ric Flair's daughter by being completely unrelatable in counter for people thinking they understood what it meant to be that daughter or discrediting her achievements because of that. All that basically connects to being a heel. She also is much bigger than the other women, which again heel.

What made that perspective really interesting to me is that I've often though, and I've seen other mention this, is that Queen Charlotte is an antithesis to general top performers as the character doesn't appear to be magnifying Charlotte's personality, but is much closer to a role played by an actress. However it turns out that the Queen is driven by what Charlotte would like to be. Not from the utterly horrible person point of view, but rather that utter confidence in herself which allows her to do anything.

Charlotte wants to face Rousey at Mania in order to prove herself: There's been a lot of discussion on Charlotte wrestling Rousey at next Mania and why it benefits the company. Yet in these interviews Charlotte actually explains why she herself wants to have that match which is actually a question that has been somewhat ignored by this point. For her, that match with Rousey isn't just about who Ronda is, but rather more about showing herself to be that top asset to the company and establish herself as that big draw. Furthermore this is an opportunity to be someone who doesn't just get great matches with other wrestles, but can also do that with someone who isn't even in the company. It's ambitious, sure, but that is what the top talent needs.

Context is crucial for the Sasha/Charlotte story: When the book came out, something that was mentioned in multiple discussions was the comments Charlotte made about Sasha and their relationship in the book. I'm not going to go in to detail, as, again, I haven't read the book, but the general gist seems to be that, according to Charlotte, Sasha's behaviour towards her changes after Charlotte won the NXT women's title as Sasha felt she should have won the title first. The same happened when they arrived to the main roster as Sasha felt she should have won the Diva's title first. Again, Charlotte's claims. In the interviews Charlotte has indicated that the rift has been overstated and that she understands where Sasha coming from, which some have taken as Charlotte backtracking.

So this is the trickiest point for me, as I have not read the book and can't comment what exactly was said there, but from the descritions I've seen online and the interviews, I feel that the majority of the discussion is either ignoring the larger context of what Charlotte was actually speaking about or approaching it as a Sasha newsite. From Charlotte's perspective, as far as I understand this is a competition and thus it is completely understandable to want to be on top. For example, if it was up to her, she would have become the SDL women's champion already as that is what you should want to be and thus Sasha's desire was completely relatable. However, where things take a turn, is that when Charlotte became that chosen champion, that competive nature took over and there was no support from Sasha then despite Charlotte considering her a friend and Charlotte being someone who was still trying to find herself as a performer. That seemed to have been the central issue for Charlotte as she could understand why Sasha wanted to be the champion, but also wished the women at the back would have understood where Charlotte was at that point and been willing to help her in that role. This is also why Becky is so important to Charlotte as even after that Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania where Charlotte emerged as the champion, Becky still continued to be her unconditional friend who supported her in those difficult moments.

So despite having at least two more tidbits I found really interesting, I will actually end here so that that this will not drag on any longer. I'm sorry if some of the tidbits here come across as a bit odd as there was so much I wanted to write about each of them, but didn't want to just cause this thing to scatter even more. I would love to hear if something different caught someone's else attention. Furthermore, if there are people who have actually read the book, I would also be really interested to hear their perspective on these matters. With that I bid farewell and hopefully this was an enjoyable read for you.