Charlotte Flair discusses the women's evolution in WWE.
Speaking to a panel at SXSW over the weekend, Charlotte Flair was asked how she able to stand out in a male-dominated industry.
"It's great that we have this women's evolution now but just five years ago, I was wrestling in front of seven people in a warehouse every Thursday, having maybe eight to ten minutes. I remember the group of women who I was working with, who I came up through NXT with and debuted on the main roster we said, 'We want to make a difference. We want to make a change," recalled Charlotte. "We want to matter. It started with saying, 'We want to wrestle like the men.' Before, a lot of the time, the women were in lingerie or told 'you can't wrestle like that' or they were given secondary storylines or just manager roles. We said, 'let's change the game.' It started with proving to our producers that we can wrestle just as good as the men and we can have just as good of stories as the men. The hardest thing to do and the most important thing to do is, 'Hey, the women can connect with the audience.' Once we started to connect with the audience, the WWE Universe wanted more for us. Triple said, 'These women could main event our TakeOvers and Live Events. They're putting on just as good of matches, if not better, than the men.'"
Charlotte continued, discussing how she and the Horsewomen were able to change the culture in NXT, but there was still work to do on the main roster.
"Once we debuted on the main roster, seeing the women on the main roster weren't given the same opportunities as us in NXT, we said, no, we're going to make a difference then as well. Every time we were given air time -- whether it was 30 seconds, a minute, or five minutes -- we said, 'we are going to prove to the WWE that we can put people in those seats' and say people are coming to see the women, not just the men."
The women are the hottest act in WWE right now with Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Ronda Rousey stealing headlines on a nightly basis. Charlotte is currently scheduled to potentially main event WrestleMania against Rousey. Becky Lynch could be added to the match if she defeats Charlotte later tonight at WWE Fastlane.
