Tiffany Stratton & Charlotte Flair's Off-Script Nightmare: What Went Wrong, Reaction (WWE News)

Tiffany Stratton's barbs at Charlotte Flair in their contentious in-ring promo battle on this week's WWE SmackDown were seen as "retaliation" for the way Flair "ate [Tiffany] up" in their prior sitdown interview.

PWInsider's Mike Johnson reports that this is the belief backstage, corroborating reports that the segment (which saw Stratton jab Flair for her three divorces and Charlotte return fire by saying Tiffany's real-life boyfriend, Ludwig Kaiser, was "in my DMs") went off-script.

Some sources feel that the way Tiffany stood up for herself put the spotlight back on her ahead of the WrestleMania 41 match with Flair. Others, meanwhile, felt like the segment's collapse didn't help anybody.

Johnson states that Charlotte was "thrown by the crowd", leading to Stratton's shots landing even harder. Flair's final comment on Kaiser was referred to as "a flailing shot from a boxer who didn't realize they were KO'd" by a source, who stated that Charlotte was "gotten to."

WWE has removed several comments from its official YouTube upload of the segment and deleted tweets featuring the more controversial lines.

The segment was the latest in a line of divisive offerings from WWE Women's Champion Stratton and her WrestleMania 41 opponent. On the 21 March SmackDown, the aforementioned sitdown interview left Tiffany visibly struggling, as Flair continually sniped her mid-sentence.

Backstage Reaction To Tiffany Stratton & Charlotte Flair Going Off-Script

For the Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online, Dave Meltzer writes that the situation between Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton had been brewing. One source has indicated, too, that while neither woman was seen as being in the right, Flair is taking the majority of the heat.

Meltzer adds that "everyone seems to be told that it was a segment that fell apart, just as it appeared." One source commented that with it being WrestleMania season, they can't be 100% sure.

Somebody close to Stratton has indicated that Flair went off-script in the segment. Stratton's lines were in retaliation to this. Regardless of who started it, another source has indicated that there is heat on both wrestlers, with neither seen as the "good guy."

Meltzer noted, too, that Wade Barrett stepping between Stratton and Flair as things got heated didn't appear planned. The commentator may have acted with good sense to keep them apart.

Flair and Stratton will contest the latter's WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 41 on 19 or 20 April. There are two SmackDowns left between now and then, opening up the possibility of further segments and onscreen interactions between Tiffany and Charlotte. Whether or not WWE will take action following the SmackDown segment is unclear.