Bianca Belair says having her planned opponents go down with injuries can be frustrating, but these setbacks are opportunities to step up and prove that she can deliver in big moments.
Since she captured the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37, her title reigns have been somewhat hampered by these obstacles. Bayley, her scheduled challenger at WWE Money in the Bank 2021, went down with a long-term injury shortly before their match. A year later, Belair was scheduled to defend the RAW Women’s Championship against Rhea Ripley at Money in the Bank before the latter was sidelined with an injury.
During an appearance on the Corner Podcast with Andreas Hale & Kel Dansby, “The EST” discussed these challenges and noted that she felt Bayley’s injury, among other issues, held her back during her run with the title on SmackDown. She then pointed out that she’s dealing with similar obstacles during her current run with the gold on RAW.
“It’s difficult, and it gets frustrating for me sometimes,” said Belair. “I felt like, even with my SmackDown Women’s Title reign, I felt like I wasn’t able to live up to the full potential of SmackDown Women’s Champion just with how short the reign was and also with my feuds. With Bayley getting injured, which I can’t wait for Bayley to come back, both Bayley getting injured and Carmella then having to step in at SummerSlam, and I feel like not being able to have these amazing matches that I could have had in my title reign and being able to go up against other great competitors to prove that I’m a champion and then it getting cut short.
“And fast forward, now it’s like déjà vu. It’s happening all over again. My competitors I’m supposed to have, I’m not having. So it gets frustrating, but I think that I just try to look at it is, I have to adapt and it’s making me a better competition. It’s making me stay on my toes, and I wanna show that I’m always gonna be there and be dependable and be able to show up and show out, and be the common denominator of whatever big moments happen.”
“The EST” then emphasized that her goal is to constantly stay in the mix and remain part of big moments, as she aims to show WWE that the company can always count on her.
“No matter if somebody else can’t show up, Bianca Belair’s gonna be there,” she continued. “Bianca Belair’s gonna be in the mix of the big moments and be talked about. And that’s really my main goal is to be a part of big moments and always be available so that my name can always stay in the conversation, and any time they want a big match or any time they want a big moment, Bianca Belair’s name comes up in the conversation because they know that I’m gonna come through and show up and show out.”
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