Backstage News On Why WWE Did The Controversial Charlotte-Paige Angle On Raw

During a heated Divas Championship Contract Signing on Raw, Paige made a controversial comment about Charlotte’s family that sparked a wild brawl between the one-time allies.

Charlotte got emotional referencing her late brother (Reid Flair, who died on on March 29, 2013 from an accidental overdose of heroin and prescription drugs), saying Paige was there for her when he died. The Divas Champion said she is here today because of him — to fulfill his dream. Later in the segment, Paige decided to insult his memory in an attempt to rile her foe into a brawl by saying he didn’t have “much fight in him.” Charlotte then lunged across the table at her Paige, instigating a giant brawl that was eventually stopped by a group of referees.

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, the angle was done with the intention of Charlotte appearing sympathetic to fans since the creative team has found it difficult in getting her over as a babyface. He also said that Charlotte did not come up with the idea for her deceased brother to be mentioned on Raw since it was pitched to her.

Ric Flair addressed the angle on his podcast, but was very careful with his words. It was clear he didn’t like it, and spoke volumes by not saying anything, saying he would not give his opinion because he doesn’t want to do anything that could hurt his daughter’s career. But he did say that he didn’t know about it in advance, that it was a sensitive issue to him, that he cried when he watched the segment, and also mentioned that both beforehand, and the next day, that nobody from WWE had called him.

Flair also feels that her daughter isn’t ‘comfortable saying no to anybody about anything.’

“If they ask you to do something, what is she going to say, ‘no, I quit’? I don’t think that anybody has… I listened to a lot of the interviews with a lot of the kids. Forget anything personal, it doesn’t mean I have to like the verbage of them. They’ve written down stuff for me that I wasn’t comfortable with and I can go ask and they’ll change it. It’s nothing sensitive like that but they’ve brought stuff to me and I’ve said to Hunter ‘this doesn’t make sense’ and Hunter goes ‘well, write something down that does’ or ‘go talk to the writer’ and I will. But it’s never anything of that level of sensitivity.

…

“. . . I do know that she would never be comfortable rocking the boat right now. She’s in a very unique and great position with them and she’ll be there as long as she wants to be because they think that much of her, not only because of who she is but because of her skill set, her workrate, her work ethic; there are a thousand reasons why she’ll be there forever. But I don’t think she feels comfortable saying no to anybody about anything.”

Dave Meltzer reported Wednesday night on F4WOnline.com, that the script for the angle was given to Charlotte on the night of the show. There were some lines that weren’t recited exactly as they were written, but it didn’t affect what WWE was trying to accomplish.