During the April 4 episode of SmackDown, Flair and Stratton met in the ring to build up their WWE Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 41. What started as a standard promo quickly turned into a heated and personal exchange that got fans and insiders talking.

Toward the end of the segment, Stratton mentioned Flair’s divorce from Andrade, while Flair responded by saying Stratton’s real-life boyfriend, Ludwig Kaiser, had been messaging her. The exchange took things to a level that clearly wasn’t in the original script.

According to WrestleVotes, both stars went off-script significantly, choosing to ignore most of the planned content for the segment. WWE later deleted a video that featured the more personal parts of the exchange, further signaling that it wasn’t entirely approved.

Mike Johnson from PWInsider confirmed that the segment veered off the planned script. Sources backstage believe that Stratton’s remarks were a way of pushing back after Flair had dominated their previous promo. Some backstage felt Stratton did well by standing her ground and reclaiming some of the spotlight, while others thought the overall direction of the promo didn’t really benefit either woman.

It was also noted that Flair appeared to be thrown off by the crowd’s reaction, which made Stratton’s words land even harder. One backstage source compared Flair’s reply about Kaiser to a boxer throwing a desperate punch without realizing they’ve already been knocked out, saying she looked visibly shaken by the exchange.

Despite the personal nature of the promo, WRKD Wrestling reported that any mention of Flair’s divorce would have been cleared in advance, so that line wasn’t a total surprise to those in charge.