Internal reactions to Charlotte/Tiffany promo (Patreon)

Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair had a surprising and buzzworthy promo exchange on Friday night Smackdown.

The April 4 promo turned heads as Charlotte Flair appeared to be affected by the crowd, and Tiffany Stratton got personal, referencing Charlotte's personal life. Charlotte discussed her recent divorce from Andrade on the Sherri Shepard show this week. After making a comment that Charlotte was "0-3" in marriages, Tiffany quickly rolled out of the ring. Charlotte would shout that "Ludwig Kaiser was in her DMs.:

Completely separate of the personal relationship elements that aren't our business and we don't care to report on, the promo was a hot topic among the women's roster since it happened.

The comments were quickly edited out of the digital versions of the promo, which we're told was a specific directive.

The segment was listed as being written by Devyn Prieto. However, almost everyone that watched it unfold believes it wasn't supposed to go down that way, including staff and talent.

It's worth noting that the following are reactions from those within the company.

We've not heard of any further altercation backstage, but heard that Charlotte Flair didn't appear to be pleased. A number of talent on the roster reached out and said that Charlotte is known to call audibles on promos and spots in the ring, and two talent said that Tiffany Stratton had to "fight back" after the side-by-side promo that seemed to Charlotte took control over.

One longtime WWE talent said that going at Charlotte in that manner can be daunting, but it's something every talent has to be willing to do to keep up with her and not get "run over." Another prominently booked women's talent said that it was likely that Tiffany Stratton was doing what she had to, but the prospect of going towards Charlotte seems like a horrifying prospect for anyone that does it.

There were several talent that believed WWE, Charlotte and Tiffany Stratton should all lean into the angle, but that it seemed like the crowd changed the trajectory of the promo.

At least one source close to Stratton claimed that Charlotte went off script first, then Stratton fought back. The claim was that rolling out of the ring after dropping the marriage line was to try to avoid the situation escalating. The belief was that this situation has been boiling over for a while.

Management wasn't happy with either woman from what we're told.

We've heard that when the back and forth happened to close the promo, there were some audible "oohs" and "woahs" and general surprise that it unfolded that way.

UPDATE: We've updated this with additional information, and corrected the seemingly oft-error of Patreon cutting lines off. We've contacted Patreon again, and they claim it's an issue that will be fixed this week for us.