Earlier tonight (Mar. 29), Andrade gave his first interview since WWE released him a week ago.
The former NXT & United States champion had plenty to say to Hugo Savinovich on Lucha Libre Online’s Facebook, but the story causing ripples tonight had to do with his fiancé Charlotte Flair. The company removed Flair from their promotion for next month’s WrestleMania 37 event, and a day after Andrade’s release, Charlotte announced she’s been off WWE television after testing positive for COVID-19.
According to Andrade, however, there’s more to the story than that (translation by Carlos Toro for Fightful):
“About 15 days ago, two things happened. When I asked for my release, it was on a Monday. The following day, I had things with the company and I got COVID and my girlfriend also tested positive. No one knows about this... About three weeks ago, it was a Wednesday afternoon, like 7 or 8 PM, they called her and it was the same doctor [who informed Andrade of the positive drug test that resulted in his 2020 WWE Wellness Policy suspension]. She was a little scared, asking, ‘What’s happening, what’s going on?’ They told her that she was pregnant.
“She was confused because we went to a pharmacy. We bought pregnancy tests and everything went negative. How does a doctor, supposedly one of the best, go and tell her that? It was the same doctor who said I tested positive. Was that a lie too? WWE didn’t do anything about, no blood testing to make sure. So, it fell on us to go the next day and get tested to see if she was really pregnant. We did that on our own. Only then afterwards, WWE offered to help. But they took her out of storylines because ‘she wasn’t cleared because she was pregnant.’ Four days after more testing, WWE didn’t say anything. They pulled her out of storylines.”
Likely to clarify that she is not in fact pregnant, representatives for Flair reached out to talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy with the following statement:
“What Manny [Andrade] said about the pregnancy test in today’s interview is true, but a significant amount of context is lost in translation and we’d like to clear that up as best we can.
“A few weeks ago, Charlotte received a call from WWE medical telling her that her HCG levels had come back high and she was medically suspended for pregnancy.
“That day, she took several home tests that all came back negative. A few days later, blood work and ultrasound confirmed there was no pregnancy.
“This was before any issues with COVID (she is currently medically clear).
“This put a lot in context for her, mainly how small a woman’s career window is. The men are able to work well into their 50s while the women are seen as “older” in their early 30s even. For an athlete in her prime, these years mean everything.
“Her issue was with the process and how the information was relayed as opposed to the information itself.”
Flair did not appear on Raw tonight, and at this point it seems unlikely she’ll be added to ‘Mania. That picture will become more clear as we hear more about this story... and we will certainly hear more about this story.