Charlotte signed a WWE developmental contract on May 12,2012 and just 14 months later on July 17th,2013 made her debut on NXT in a winning effort against Bayley, with her father Ric Flair in her corner. She'd form a short lived tag team with Bayley that would end on November 13th episode of NXT when she turned on her joining Summer Rae and Sasha Banks in the Beautiful Fierce Females.By the end of February 2014, Charlotte would confront NXT Women's Champion Paige during an interview with Renee Young after her successful title defense against Emma on the NXT ArRIVAL special episode, announcing herself as her next challenger.On April 6, Charlotte, along with Alexa Bliss and Banks, made an appearance at WrestleMania XXX as a part of Triple H's entrance to face Daniel Bryan.The feud between Charlotte and Paige ended on the April 24 episode of NXT, when Charlotte and Banks defeated Emma and Paige with Charlotte scoring the pinfall over Paige.In early May, Charlotte competed in the tournament for the vacant NXT Women's Championship, defeating Emma in the first round, Alexa Bliss in the semi-finals and Natalya in the finals at NXT Takeover to win the NXT Women's Championship for the first time.