From popcorn break to the main event: WWE champion Ashley ‘Charlotte’ Fliehr leads the revolution in women’s wrestling

A BREAK to grab some popcorn? Not anymore. Women’s wrestling is one of the hottest tickets in the world and its champion, Ashley “Charlotte” Fliehr, is bringing WWE’s excitement to Adelaide in August.

Fliehr’s performance at WrestleMania in April was hailed by many as the highlight of the four-hour event. Image: Supplied by WWE.

WHEN she graduated from high school, Ashley Fliehr’s father rewarded her hard work by taking her along on one of his business trips.

It might sound dull but when your father is Ric Flair — a legendary professional wrestling champion — business trips are anything but boring.

And so, at 17, Ashley toured the sites of Adelaide, cuddled koalas and sampled Haigh’s chocolate while her dad thrilled a capacity crowd at the Entertainment Centre.

That was 13 years ago — in August, Fliehr returns to Adelaide not as a tourist but as Charlotte, women’s champion of World Wrestling Entertainment.

The statuesque 30-year-old has helped revitalise women’s wrestling, a subsection of the genre once written off as the audience’s “popcorn break”.

It is an accomplishment, she says with a laugh, that wasn’t on her radar.

“Obviously my dad was my idol while I was growing up, but wrestling was honestly just ‘dad’s job’,” she says.

“I didn’t really understand the business and I didn’t follow the female performers or anything.”

She wasn’t the only one.

NO LONGER THE “POPCORN BREAK”

Wrestling is, of course, predetermined — a scripted “sports simulation” that tells tales of good versus evil, love versus hate and loyalty versus betrayal.

Women have competed within the squared circle since almost the inception of the genre, but the fortunes of their “division” have waxed and waned.

Despite the efforts of entertainers like Trish Stratus, Lita and the late Chyna, fans all-too-often wrote their matches off as bikini-clad filler.

When, in 2008, WWE renamed its female performers “Divas” and replaced the Women’s Championship with a title shaped like a pink butterfly, fans were unimpressed.

Fortunately, attitudes shifted again in 2012 when WWE expanded its search for new talent, opening its doors to a reluctant Fliehr and her determined brother, Reid.

“My little brother wanted to be a wrestler his entire life, and he kept saying ‘please do this with me, it will be great’,” she remembers.

“I’d never pictured myself as a ‘Diva’ but I told my brother I’d try.

“When dad found out, he told us we had to put our whole hearts into it, that we couldn’t half-ass it, that this was a legitimate commitment.”

Her resolve was tested in March 2013 when Reid died, aged just 25, but with the support of her father, her fellow trainees and the company, Fliehr pushed on.

What followed was a meteoric rise to superstardom.

Rechristened “Charlotte”, after the North Carolina city of her birth, Fliehr excelled at all aspects of professional wrestling.

She and fellow newcomers Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley became known as “the Four Horsewomen”, in honour of her father’s famous stable of friends.

They captured the attention of wrestling purists by abandoning traditional Divas matches for stories of hard-fought victory, bone-twisting defeat and bitter betrayals.

WWE capitalised, shifted its spotlight to the Horsewomen and, eventually, struck “Diva” from its dictionary and resurrected the Women’s Championship.

WINNING HEARTS AND CHANGING MINDS

Fans and pundits hail the Horsewomen for changing the game, but Fliehr insists they were not the standard bearers.

She points to WWE’s first Australian-born competitor, Tenille “Emma” Dashwood, as one of the architects of the “women’s revolution”.

“I’ve come up in this business because of Emma ... when I started, she was the girl who really helped me get to where I am today, 100 per cent,” she says.

“I remember watching Emma at a live special, just sitting there loving every moment, in absolute awe, thinking ‘I want to be as good as her one day’.”

Fliehr says she stills strives toward that goal, working to change audience perceptions of women in sport with every match she wrestles.

“We just love what we do, we wanted to work hard and we wanted to be the best, now we’re main-eventing shows,” she says.

“There’s a message we want to send, especially to little girls, but also to the men and women who watch us perform.

“We’re not just girls or women, we’re strong characters who stand for something bigger than ourselves — women’s wrestling isn’t the popcorn break anymore.”

For her efforts, Fliehr was recognised as Women’s Champion — an accomplishment akin to receiving the Oscar for “best actor”, recognising her talent and athleticism.

At the company’s premiere event, WrestleMania, she retained the title against Banks and Lynch in front of 101,763 people — their match considered by many to be the highlight of the night.

“We looked at my Facebook timeline just before the match and, a year earlier, we’d wrestled a three-way match against each other in front of 20 people in Florida,” she says.

“To know that, a year later, you’re on the grandest stage of them all in front of the biggest (North American) audience ever recorded, is just overwhelming.”

Fliehr fully intends to still have the championship in her possession when she comes to Adelaide in August.

“To get to go overseas and show off my Women’s Championship for the first time in Australia? You bet I’m excited, 100 per cent,” she says.

“And this time, it’ll be me wrestling and my dad sightseeing.”

WWE’s World Tour is at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday, August 12. Tickets available from Ticketek.

LOCAL HEROES

WOMEN’S wrestling is undergoing a revolution in the US but, here in Adelaide, it has always been – and continues to be – a huge attraction.

Three of Adelaide’s professional wrestling companies – Riot City Wrestling, WrestleRampage and Snake Pit Wrestling – regularly feature women’s matches that captivate and electrify the crowd.

Such is the respect for Adelaide’s wrestling scene, around the country, that female performers regularly fly south to participate in brawls that match WWE’s efforts.

These talented performers include:

KELLY ANNE, a Melbourne-based wrestler who competes in her home town, in Adelaide and overseas with promotions like Shimmer.

She first entered the ring aged 14 and trained overseas with former WWE performer Lance Storm. Kelly Anne is a proponent of intergender wrestling, competing against the men either on her own or in tag-team matches with her real-life partner, Adam Brooks.

SAVANNAH SUMMERS, known far and wide as “the first lady” of Adelaide wrestling.

Like English, Summers started young and at a time when there were no other women to train with — so she learned to battle with the boys and has never stopped.

Based in Adelaide, Summers — a multi-time champion — is highly regarded and has also competed interstate and overseas.

HARLEY WONDERLAND, perhaps the most feared women to ever lace up a pair of boots, who combines skill and power with a twisted and demented in-ring character.

Based in Newcastle, NSW, “Wondies” is a signature villains of the Australian wrestling scene, a multi-time champion who irates and terrifies the fans in equal measure.

Last year, Wonderland battled Summers in a “hard core” match involving broken tables, busted chairs and thousands of thumb tacks — into which Wondies plunged, to the crowd’s delight.

DEMI BENNETT, one of Australia’s youngest performers but also the woman to watch, having caught the eye of not only local companies but also international promoters.

She began training as a teenager and has since dominated the local scene while guest-starring at events in Melbourne and Perth.

In 2015, Bennett spent three months training in Japan — which boasts the most gruelling, intense professional wrestling training in the world — to further enhance her performance.

Follow @SeanFewster