What Really Happened When Tiffany Stratton Went Off-Script with Charlotte Flair
In the run-up to WrestleMania 41, tensions between WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair spilled over live on WWE SmackDown — and now Stratton is telling her side of the story.
The moment, which saw Stratton reference Flair’s divorce history and Flair firing back by name-dropping Ludwig Kaiser — Stratton’s real-life boyfriend — was revealed on a recent episode of WWE Unreal to have drawn the ire of Paul “Triple H” Levesque. WWE’s Chief Content Officer reportedly instructed Stratton to apologize to Flair for straying from the planned promo.
Speaking on Impaulsive, Stratton explained the mindset behind the exchange.
“Charlotte Flair is Charlotte Flair. She’s a legend. I was the champion at the time. Things were heated. She’s very competitive. I’m also very competitive. I’m trying to prove to Charlotte Flair I can go, I can stand up to her, I’m worthy of this title. So yeah, s*** got heated. We both went off script. It happens. I did have to apologize, and that was that.”
When asked about the apology, Stratton said she had no problem owning her actions — though she still believes she had reason for her verbal jabs.
“I think what I did was justified, but maybe I shouldn’t have gone that far… but I do feel like I was justified in what I did.”
Despite the heated moment, the two reportedly remained professional through the WrestleMania build, culminating in a hard-hitting title defense for Stratton on the grand stage.
Wrestling.news | Backstage Take
Off-script moments like this can go one of two ways in WWE — they can create lightning in a bottle, or they can cause waves backstage. In this case, it seems to have been a little of both. Sources indicate the tension between Stratton and Flair was genuine in the moment, but each understood the bigger picture — the match, the story, and the championship spotlight. While WWE management clearly wants promos to stay within approved boundaries, these flashes of raw emotion are often what make rivalries memorable. It wouldn’t be surprising if this unscripted jab exchange ultimately fueled more interest in their WrestleMania clash.
