After making her main roster debut in April 2020, Bianca Belair’s rise to superstardom kicked into gear just seven months later.
Belair won the 2021 Royal Rumble match after eliminating Rhea Ripley to claim a famous win. The EST entered the match at number three and lasted a stunning 56 minutes before becoming only the second Black Superstar to win a Royal Rumble Match.
Fresh off the win, Belair headed to WrestleMania 37 where she defeated Sasha Banks [Mercedes Mone] to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship. However, things almost played out very differently.
Bianca Belair’s Rise Nearly Looked Very Different
Appearing on the Public Enemies Podcast, former WWE writer Chris Dunn revealed that Charlotte Flair was originally planned to win the Royal Rumble. Dunn explained that plans were changed after fellow writer Ryan Ward convinced Vince McMahon that Belair should be the woman to win.
“I was in a Tampa Hotel room and we were watching some sort of football game and an assistant had just left the Royal Rumble (2021) night-before meeting and they changed the finish and Charlotte [Flair] was going to go over and they rehearsed Charlotte going over and Bianca [Belair] was going to get eliminated like midway through the match and it got changed to Bianca going over and I think a lot of people voiced it but this guy, Ryan Ward, he’s been there for like 14 years, he was [John] Cena’s writer and probably, for my money, I think has had the biggest hand in the women’s revolution.
He was lead writer in the golden days of NXT with Kevin [Owens] and Sami [Zayn] and The Four Horsewomen, all that stuff. From my understanding, what I heard, he kind of said something to Vince [McMahon] to the effect of, ‘Vince, if you look at the Royal Rumble tomorrow, you have Edge winning and Charlotte winning. We’re not making any new stars’ and I think that really resonated and Bianca was on such a roll where it kind of made sense and she also had to, again, right after that match, really nail that post-match promo and she did it and she was just awesome and great.”
Bianca Belair is set to be back in action at the 2023 Royal Rumble. It has been announced that the star will be defending her Raw Women’s Title against Alexa Bliss.
H/t to POST Wrestling