Tiffany Stratton Breaks Silence On Charlotte Flair Controversy: "She Didn't Expect It" (WWE News)

Tiffany Stratton has broken her silence on last week's SmackDown segment with WrestleMania 41 opponent Charlotte Flair going off-script, saying that she doesn't think Flair expected her to "clap back."

Speaking on the Babyfaces Podcast, Stratton, when asked if she thought Charlotte was underestimating her, said: “I think being so new to this business, being so new as champion, I don’t think she really expected me to stand up to her," the WWE Women's Champion said (h/t Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer). "And I don’t think she expected me to, I guess, almost clap back.”

Continuing, Stratton said that she believes the segment made people more interested in the WrestleMania 41 match. “Look, all I have to say is it’s live TV, people want to see our match, and I think that we did a very good job of getting people wanting to see our match and invested in our story," Tiffany said. "And now, I’m ready to put on the best women’s match ever, and I’m ready to go to war.”

Flair and Stratton's in-ring promo battle on last week's SmackDown is believed to have first gone off-script when Charlotte declared herself the "nepo queen." Earlier in the week, Fightful reported that when Flair started mocking Stratton's voice, people backstage in WWE believed Tiffany "needed to fight back", although getting so personal without clearance was considered "ill-advised."

Charlotte imitating Tiffany's voice, Stratton's line about Charlotte's divorces, and Flair claiming Tiffany's real-life boyfriend Ludwig Kaiser was "in her DMs" were amongst the unscripted, personal content that made it to the segment.