Surprise success of “We’re Not Friends” tag-team forces BIG change to WWE plans.
Wrestling Observer Radio is reporting that WWE originally planned to book Charlotte Flair vs. Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam 2025, but the company altered that thought once both showed signs of life as a promising tag-team on TV.
Currently, both Flair and Bliss are operating on the basis that “We’re Not Friends”. That’s become the unofficial (for now) name for their union, and it’s working a treat. In character, Charlotte was initially frosty towards Alexa when ‘Little Miss Bliss’ began butting in on her promos backstage, but things have softened between them in more recent weeks.
Together, the duo tried to become Women’s Tag-Team Champions at Evolution on 13 July, but they’d ultimately lose out during a successful defence for Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez (the bout was a Fatal-4-Way affair that also included Asuka and Kairi Sane as well as NXT pair Sol Ruca and Zaria).
Since then, it’s been revealed that SmackDown GM Nick Aldis has granted Flair and Bliss another crack at Rodriguez and Perez come SummerSlam on 2-3 August. This time, there’s a solid chance that “We’re Not Friends” (assuming that’s going to be their actual tag name going forwards) will take the belts and become the next focal point of the women’s tag scene.
It’s interesting that this success story has pretty much come out of left field. It clearly wasn’t something that Triple H or WWE’s creative team generally thought would fly with fans, but people seem to be enjoying it. That has iced a possible PLE collision between the pair, and it raises another point about Charlotte’s role on WWE TV for the rest of 2025.
WWE has tried and failed to turn Flair into a viable babyface for many years now.
Back in 2018, Becky Lynch turning on her at SummerSlam actually led to the biggest babyface run of Becky’s career. Fans rejected Charlotte and embraced ‘The Man’, which really hammered home how Flair’s silver spoon style was a struggle for people to relate to. That’s something Charlotte herself has brought up during interviews with Steve Austin for ‘Broken Skull Sessions’ in the past – she’s super-aware of the narrative surrounding her upbringing and career.
Other attempts to make Flair more likeable have fallen on deaf ears with the WWE audience too, but…could things be set to change? Charlotte has been hearing cheers whilst appearing with Alexa on screen, and there’s something to be said for fans organically turning somebody rather than writers forcing the issue.
If they’re feeling brave enough, then WWE might want to run with this recent uptick in popularity and see how far they can go with it. Then, when the time is right, Flair can show her true colours again and turn heel on Bliss so they can reach the previously-planned singles showdown on a major card.
Is this Charlotte’s big babyface break, or will it be a short-lived stay in the baby locker room for someone who’s best-regarded as an entitled, title-grabbing ‘Queen’ who’s there to be shot at?
