Charlotte Flair Feels Her Mental State Led To Her ACL Injury In 2023
Charlotte Flair opens up on the injury which kept her out of WWE for over a year.
In December 2023, during an episode of SmackDown, Charlotte Flair unfortunately suffered a torn ACL injury in a match with Asuka. The 14-time world champion had to spend 13 months on the sidelines, missing a full calendar year of action across 2024, only returning in the 2025 Women’s Royal Rumble. Now back on our screens, Flair has looked back on the injury she suffered over two years ago.
Speaking to Bloomberg Talks, Flair revealed her belief that her injury occurred due to his frame of mind at the time of the match.
“I definitely think when I hurt my knee, I tore my ACL, I don’t think I was in the right state of mind. Meaning whether it was imposter syndrome, that dialogue that how we talk to ourselves, that inner self talk, I feel like I was in a very negative space and not opening up about it. The anxiety of being a woman that’s approaching 40, what that looks like, the demands. And I want to be able to say I’m a woman and what I want more of is time. All that pressure adding up, I feel like the reason I hurt my knee is because I wasn’t all there performing. And for someone who has always looked at myself as the iron woman, when my knee took me out, I was like, all I viewed myself was is a professional wrestler. Like that’s all I am, and that’s not all I am. I do have a voice and maybe this is the start of something bigger for me. I love being Charlotte, but taking Charlotte to the next level and making these conversations more accessible or not taboo for people in any kind of industry, I think is so important.”
-Charlotte Flair
Having won the Royal Rumble in her first match back, it looked as if Flair had immediately resumed her role as one of WWE’s top singles contenders when she came back from her lengthy spell on the sidelines, although it wasn’t long before the star switched divisions. After losing to Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania 41, ‘The Queen’ began a storyline with Alexa Bliss which led them to the Women’s Tag Team Championships.
The pair went on to hold the titles for 100 days before losing to The Kabuki Warriors back in November. Despite ongoing murmurs of a split on the road to WrestleMania, Flair and Bliss remain united as they continue rebuild towards tag team gold.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Charlotte Flair as soon as we hear more.
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