At WrestleMania 39, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley stole the entire weekend with their clash over the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship, a match that is widely considered one of the best women's title bouts in the history of "The Grandest Stage Of Them All." Despite Flair losing her title to Ripley, she was seen smiling in defeat outside of the ring while "Mami" celebrated the victory, and during a recent interview with "ClutchPoints," Flair revealed the reasoning behind the iconic moment.
"It was more like, 'Follow that.' That's how I felt," Flair stated. "I felt like Rhea and I [had] incredible chemistry, a lot of history, and that match, I was proud of both of us. She was probably thinking it too. 'Follow that.' That was the smile."
According to Flair, she didn't direct the "Follow that" specifically statement to Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, The Usos, Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn, who main evented night one and two of WrestleMania 39, but rather sent the message to everyone competing that weekend. Additionally, the match was also viewed as a passing of the torch moment, with Flair seemingly handing over the persona of the most dominant woman in the division to Ripley. The 16-time Women's Champion alsoclaimed that everyone backstage was thrilled backstage with their performance.
Ripley has also been outspoken about her WrestleMania 39 battle with Flair, stating that the goal was to always steal the show, especially after believing they had the ability to main event night one if the build to the match had been better.
