The April 4th edition of WWE SmackDown featured a now-viral and controversial promo showdown between Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton — and as new details emerge, it’s becoming clear just how far things went off-script.
During the segment, Flair mocked Stratton’s signature voice, while Stratton took a sharp jab at Flair’s personal life, referencing her three divorces. The tension escalated further when Flair fired back with a stinging comment about Tiffany’s real-life boyfriend, Ludwig Kaiser, allegedly sliding into her DMs.
While the fiery exchange quickly gained traction online, reports from Fightful Select and Wrestling Observer Live are painting a fuller backstage picture — and confirming that the segment did not go as originally planned.
According to Fightful Select, Charlotte’s decision to address live crowd boos directly wasn’t in the script, but it was considered standard ad-libbing — the kind that typically wouldn’t cause internal issues. However, that wasn’t the only deviation.
Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live provided a detailed breakdown of where the segment veered off course:
“Tiffany starts doing all of her lines. She mentions that Charlotte is a nepo baby, which is a scripted line. But then Charlotte jumps in with, ‘Nepo Queen. The number one nepo baby.’ This was not in the script. Then she starts making fun of Tiffany’s voice, which was absolutely not in the script. And she’s ridiculing her and doing the high-pitched voice thing.”
As tensions escalated, Stratton decided to hit back hard — going beyond the approved dialogue:
“Tiffany, I guess she was over it. She mentioned ‘0-3’. The discussion about divorces and everything, that was all in the script, but the line about ‘0-3’, which was a reference to how many times Charlotte’s been divorced — that was not in the script.”
Stratton capped things off by abruptly tossing the mic and leaving the ring — a move considered out of character for a babyface. According to Alvarez, that decision also wasn’t in the script and further signaled to viewers and producers that things had truly spiraled out of control.
“If you watch it, she throws down the mic, and she starts to roll out of the ring, and Charlotte is walking, and Wade Barrett — he is gonna get between these two because he can see this thing has gone totally off the rails.”
Fightful Select described the aftermath of the segment as being viewed internally as a “wreck.” While both women were said to have received backstage heat, sources noted more heat fell on Charlotte Flair due to her level of improvisation and veteran status. As someone expected to lead the segment and maintain order, Flair’s off-script barbs were seen as escalating the situation.
Despite the chaos, Stratton later defended the moment on The Babyfaces Podcast, saying she did what she needed to do to get people invested in the WrestleMania 41 match:
“It’s live TV, stakes are high. We’re going into WrestleMania. I have the title, I want to keep the title. I’m going to pull out every stop that I can… I think we did a very good job of getting people wanting to see our match and invested in our story.”
With just days remaining until WrestleMania 41, the real-life friction and unexpected drama may have only increased anticipation for what could be one of the most talked-about Women’s Championship matches in years.
