How Charlotte Flair's WWE return changed plans for Lana

It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Lana and Asuka would be facing Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler in a Tables match at WWE TLC for the Women's Tag Team titles. However, that changed on the final edition of RAW before the pay-per-view.

After Lana scored a pinfall victory over Jax, she was written out of the storyline by being injured by Baszler and Jax, and left Asuka without a tag team partner heading into TLC.

That Sunday, Charlotte Flair made her return at WWE TLC and went on to defeat Jax and Baszler to become the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions with Asuka. But why did this happen? When did the plans change so Lana was removed from the equation and replaced by Charlotte?

According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, the plans were altered following WWE Survivor Series. People within the company stressed to Fightful that Flair was initially not part of the plans when the original storyline between Lana and Jax began a few months ago.

I have never worked harder in my life to improve at something. I’m genuinely heartbroken to be taken out of #WWETLC

— CJ “Lana” Perry (@LanaWWE) December 20, 2020

WWE decided to add Charlotte Flair into the storyline following Survivor Series

Flair was expected back in the company sometime in the fall or the winter, but WWE didn't have a set storyline at the time as to how "The Queen" would return to the RAW roster. Clearly, those plans came into focus following the Survivor Series pay-per-view.

Fightful states that plenty of the roster was kept in the dark when it came to Flair's impending return, but it turned into a "badly kept secret" over the few weeks leading to her return.

Any way you slice it, you have to feel bad for Lana who worked so hard to be in this position only for it to be taken away in favor of someone else.

Merry Christmas “Queen” @MsCharlotteWWE

— CJ “Lana” Perry (@LanaWWE) December 24, 2020

How are you feeling about Flair's WWE return? Are you happy about it? Or do you wish that she would have been brought back a different way allowing the Lana storyline to play out with Jax? Let us know by sounding off in the comments section below.