UPDATE x 2: As we’ve been reporting here on eWn, there was an incident between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair at last night’s WWE SmackDown TV tapings. Following the main event, the two were involved in a loud verbal confrontation backstage but it never became physical.
During the segment, Charlotte Flair was supposed to hand the belt to Becky Lynch. Instead, she pulled it away and very clearly threw it to the canvas, which was reportedly not the way the moment was supposed to play out. Sonya Deville then demanded Flair pick up the belt and hand it to her. Charlotte Flair did as directed, and Sonya Deville asked for Becky Lynch to hand her the SmackDown title. Instead, Lynch threw her title belt at Flair to return the favor.
According to a report from Fightful, the original script for SmackDown called for Lynch grabbing the RAW title from Charlotte Flair in order to brag about being “Becky Two Belts.’ Sonya Deville would then order Lynch to hand her title over to Charlotte.
It’s rumored that Charlotte Flair didn’t agree with this booking, but she was told to go along with it. It’s noted that “most everyone” agreed the segment was going to come off as awkward.
During the verbal confrontation backstage, Charlotte Flair said that the dropping of the title belt was accidental. You guys can be the judge of that by watching the video below. As previously reported here on eWn, WWE officials reportedly asked Charlotte Flair to leave the venue before Becky Lynch finished her dark match in order to avoid any further confrontations and so both talents could cool off. It was reported earlier by talkSPORT that Vince McMahon was upset that Charlotte left the Gorilla Position without speaking to him.
It should be noted that a significant number of wrestlers, officials, producers, and referees had already left the arena last night when the incident took place, so they heard about what happened secondhand. Staff and talent were trying to leave early after what was an already busy travel week. Word of the incident reportedly started making its way around to people who left early after about an hour.
With the switch, Charlotte Flair now holds the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and Becky Lynch holds the RAW Women’s Championship. The two women’s champions are expected to face each other later next month at WWE Survivor Series 2021. Of course, WWE could get the title off one of the women before then so there wouldn’t be any further confrontations.
Additionally, WWE did not post any footage of the in-ring segment between Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch on YouTube or Twitter. They only have the footage of the segment after Sasha Banks came out to make her appearance.
UPDATE: More details continue to come out regarding the backstage confrontation between Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch at Friday’s SmackDown.
After their Championship Exchange segment, there “were loud words between the two” over Flair disrespecting Lynch by “trying to make her look bad” during the segment. Flair didn’t like the segment originally and went to management to try to convince them that it would make her and her title reign look weak.
talkSPORT reports their issues go back a few years as Flair did not appreciate being called “plastic” during a promo by Lynch. It was also said that there was unhappiness from both women about the title exchange segment. Also, Flair pushed to lose the RAW Women’s Title to Bianca Belair on RAW this past Monday because she thought it would benefit both of them.
Per the report, Vince McMahon was said to have been unhappy backstage because Flair left the Gorilla position without talking to him.
Fightful reports Flair said that it was an accident when she dropped the title during the segment instead of handing it to Lynch. Finally, the report stated Flair was asked to leave the arena before Lynch’s dark match ended to avoid another confrontation.
Flair is reportedly headed to Orlando to support Andrade at AEW Dynamite.
ORIGINAL: Pwinsider.com reports there was a backstage confrontation between Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair after SmackDown went off the air.
After their Championship Exchange segment, there “were loud words between the two” over Flair disrespecting Lynch by “trying to make her look bad” during the segment.
While it was heated, they didn’t get physical. It all started when Flair went to management before the show to tell them that she thought the segment would make her look weak and her title reign weak. That didn’t change anything.
Once in the ring, Flair threw the title on the mat instead of handing it over to Lynch. After Sonya Deville told Flair to do so, she did hand over the title. Lynch then threw the title at Flair.
It was noted that “the situation was heated but did not get physical.” Once Sasha Banks came out, the segment was back on track.