Charlotte Flair Dismisses Potential WWE Retirement, Calls Turning 40 “New Territory”

WWE

Charlotte Flair has revealed that she isn’t likely to retire anytime soon, calling turning forty years of age “new territory”.

Flair was asked about thoughts of retirement in a recent interview on Casuals, with Katie Nolan asking if she has started thinking about the end of her career and whether questions such as “Okay, am I going to retire? Do I want to go out fighting? Or do I want to just take a step back and reassess?” have manifested.

She responded:

“None of that. It’s unfortunate that those sentences happen because I feel like in our industry, men don’t reach their prime until 40. Because I started late, I didn’t win my first title until I was 30.

“Where the girls are now, which is awesome, a lot of people are in their younger 20s. But I graduated, had my awkward 20s of not knowing what to do, and then wrestling came later in life. But saying that the men don’t hit their prime till 40, why am I not hitting my prime now?

“I don’t look at it like, yes, I realize that I think it would be easier for people to label me in that box, but I’m not going to let anyone put me in that box.

“And I hope women in any profession who are about to turn 40 don’t think that is a slowdown or an end game. If anything, whatever industry that you’re in, and in sport like Lindsey Vonn did, it’s whatever you are capable of and are willing to do and put in the time.

“I’m very fortunate. I started out on top. It might seem like my career is longer, but I just have had the opportunity to be at the top of the game.

“And now I’m not gonna say sorry anymore for winning, I’m not gonna age out of my career, I’m gonna quit when I want to quit. I’m gonna lace it up when I want to lace it up.”

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With it being clear that Flair won’t be hanging up her boots any time soon, the WWE star would go on to say:

“I do feel like if nobody knew how old I was and you saw me out in the ring, you wouldn’t look at me with the group of girls and be like, ‘Oh, she’s been here for 10 years, and she’s 40.’ It’s just unfortunate because that’s how society is, and it’s changing slowly, but like 40 has had such a stigma around it.

“What is it? Men get better, women get older? Yeah, no, I’m only getting better… Here’s the thing: it’s new territory.

“It was new territory when I debuted in 2015, and it’s new territory now. So, I hope I am part of the progress of changing that.”

Charlotte Flair teams with Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania 42 on April 18, challenging The Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax & Lash Legend) for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship in a Fatal Four-way match that also features Bayley & Lyra Valkyria, and The Bella Twins.

Age Is Just A Number

Charlotte Flair turned 40 in April of this year, with her career to date seeing her become the fourth WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion, having won her first Women’s Championship back in March 2014 over in NXT.

Turning 40 sees her be the same age as both of The Usos, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, Rusev and Roman Reigns, with little talk of when that collective are likely to be retiring, and all of whom are on this year’s WWE WrestleMania 42 card.

Indeed, Flair, and the aforementioned stars are far from the oldest to grace this year’s WrestleMania, and, by contrast, not the youngest (that honor goes to Je’Von Evans and the unsigned IShowSpeed, at 21 years of age).

Perhaps, as Flair suggests, less attention should be paid to the age of a star and more on their ability to perform at the level of that very stardom.

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• wwe
• Charlotte Flair
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