Charlotte Flair thinks poor mental health contributed to past WWE knee injury
Charlotte Flair believes poor mental health contributed to the knee injury she suffered in December 2023.
Flair suffered a torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus on the December 8, 2023 episode of SmackDown and ended up being sidelined for more than a year. The injury occurred at a time when Flair wasn’t in a great place mentally, and she feels like it could have been avoided if she was in a better headspace.
“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 [of] 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 and the anxiety of, you know, being a woman that’s approaching 40, what that looks like, the demands. I want to be able to say, ‘I’m a woman and what I want more of is time.’ And all that pressure adding up, I feel like the reason I hurt my knee is because I wasn’t all there performing,” Flair told Bloomberg Talks.
“And for someone who has — I always looked at myself as the iron woman, and when my knee took me out, I was like, all I viewed myself was as a professional wrestler. Like, that’s all I am. And that’s not all I am. And I do have a voice and maybe this is the start of something bigger for me. Like, 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.”
Focusing on self-care and mental wellness has now become a priority for Flair. She’s become an investor in the apparel company Self-Care is for Everyone, which produces clothing with positive messages and promotes self-care tools.
Flair and her tag team partner Alexa Bliss defeated Giulia & Kiana James on SmackDown last Friday to become the number one contenders to new Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Lash Legend.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.