I don't need approval from people who don't know me.
— Charlotte Flair
They used to say a woman would never main-event a pay-per-view. I'm pretty sure I heard that from my dad.
We don't have an off-season. Every other sport has an off-season. It just goes to show how tough we are.
I definitely think Natalya is one of the greatest of all time.
I hope I continue to evolve.
'Raw' wants to be the better brand; 'SmackDown' wants to be the better brand. A bunch of alphas on both brands.
The dedication it must take to be part of R.O.T.C. was always interesting to me.
I am not necessarily a private person, but I am Charlotte Flair on camera, and that is playing a character.
No one understands what it's like to walk in the shadow of a famous father, let alone Ric Flair, in the wrestling industry.
Most of Charlotte's character is really who she is. A lot of who Ashley is is Charlotte and the same with my dad. It's not like I'm the Joker.
The most challenging thing that female wrestlers face is time. Getting those segments on Raw, getting one, two, three, four segments on SmackDown, main-eventing a pay-per-view, being considered a face of the division... And I have said it since day one: I want to be an attraction for the company.
I wish I was more like my character. In character, I am the queen. I am strong. I am confident, sometimes cocky. I'm hard to beat. Out of character, I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a best friend and just the girl next door that likes Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
The reason I don't do the Flair Flop anymore is because women's wrestling is being taken so seriously. I'll only perform something comedic like that at a house show.
I didn't start my career or, really, my life before I came to Florida.
I look at myself in NXT, and then I look at how far I've come on the main roster. I just think in my mind if I keep working as hard as I do and keep giving it my all that I will continue to get better.
If someone says something vulgar to you and you retweet it, now you're giving them a voice, and you never want to give hate a voice.
I started in NXT when we were still FCW in Tampa.
Sitting front row with my little brother, my older brother, and my dad's wife at the time - seeing 80,000 people at the Citrus Bowl emotionally pouring their hearts out watching my dad retire - I didn't even grasp what he meant to the industry. I didn't even fully grasp it until I started wrestling myself.
Driving from town to town, living in hotels, sometimes not going home during the week because you have an appearance - you really have to be dedicated to do this job.
When I debuted on the main roster, people just hated me. They were booing me. Social media got to me a bit. They were like, 'She's just there because she's Ric Flair's daughter.' I was like, 'Why doesn't anybody like me?' It really got to me.
Women tend to overthink things.
My dream match would be 'Queen vs. Queen' Stephanie McMahon.
Even little adjustments in promos or being a heel, different mannerisms in the ring, every week there's something I can do better. The only time I get flustered is when I try to do too many things at once. It's better to do one thing each week and work on that.
In order to have your best good guy, you have to be that bad guy.
I think I definitely work out of my father's shadow, but it was hard in the beginning. But I would never change my last name, and I couldn't be more proud to carry on his legacy.
If you had asked me in my early 20s or in high school if I was going to wrestle, I would have laughed at you.
I want to be the female Rock.
I am all athlete, and that's important, that my looks have nothing to do with what I do in the WWE.
When the fans were watching my dad, you could never tell if this was real or is this fake, and that's what made him so special. Every ounce of energy went to being The Nature Boy.
I didn't think of my size as an advantage or as something that I could use to be dominant. I didn't carry myself in the ring with the confidence that I should have.
I almost think there's a mystique to not knowing everything about me.
I walked out very nervous, my first WrestleMania, and I had my dad beside me.
You don't want to get complacent and just accept things - just because we've had those moments and we have come so far, you don't want to ever take that for granted, because the moment you do, it can all go away.
Why do something unless you are going to be the best at it?
Me and my little brother never grew up wanting to be famous.
My comfort zone and where I feel most natural is being a heel.
We continue to hire women who seem to already be polished and who have already made it outside of WWE and whose whole goal was to get to WWE.
Being undefined somewhat makes me nervous, but what I do know is I'm 100 percent confident in who Charlotte is.
I never pictured myself as an entertainer or a superstar or a model or anything like that.
I played volleyball in college. I was the girl next door, never wanted to be in the limelight.
I want to know that I am putting 30,000 individuals in seats in arenas. That's my goal.
Growing up with a famous father, and one who mastered his craft, it's one of those things where, do you really want to be in the same profession? I can't imagine the pressure on, say, Michael Jordan's kids. But for me, I think it's molded me into the character that I am today.
I spent the whole time I've been in WWE trying to build this character who is unbreakable, who is not vulnerable, and who is not relatable. For me to let down my guard and let people in, I had to make that decision, and once I did, I had to own it.
I had an athletic body my whole life.
When I first started in the WWE, I had a really hard time because I didn't look the part.
My dad was able to wrestle so many great Japanese wrestlers.
I don't know if me and my dad have necessarily touched on this because we talk about Reid but not a lot. But me wrestling, I think, ultimately saved my dad's career and not only saved my life but definitely put a whole other chapter that no one saw coming because it could've been rock bottom after my brother passed away.
Obviously, having my dad's last name, I think that's more the chip on my shoulder because it has been a mixed blessing. I always will have the Flair stigma, and I think that's where I deserve to be there or this, or I'm not just his daughter. I think that's the chip on my shoulder.
The most important thing is for women not to tear other women down. Everyone in our division is helping each other, and that's a message we send behind the scenes: that we are a unit and working to make the best product and highlight women as strong and independent superstars.
Having new opponents re-energises us as talent, as we're not having to make new out of something that's been the same every week.
