Bianca Belair names Naomi as one of her main inspirations
Thanks to her women’s Royal Rumble victory, Bianca Belair has a chance to become the SmackDown Women’s Champion this April at WrestleMania 37. The fact that Belair will get that opportunity against current champion Sasha Banks makes it all the better.
Along with this being a dream matchup of two of the most charismatic and gifted wrestlers in WWE’s women’s division, many fans were excited to see two Black women occupy one of the main event spots for the promotion’s biggest pay-per-view of the year.
As such, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that, for Belair, a former SmackDown Women’s Champion was emblematic of the very representation that Belair and Banks are set to bring to the forefront at this year’s WrestleMania.
Bianca Belair gives plenty of praise to Naomi.
In an interview with 104.5 The Zone, Belair said this about Naomi’s influence on her career (h/t to Fightful’s Gisberto Guzzo and Jeremy Lambert for the transcription):
"“I would say for me, I have to shoutout Naomi. She’s been in the business for over ten years and she did something for me before I even got into NXT, and she was just representation for me. I went to my very first live event in Atlanta, Georgia right before I started in WWE and I naturally just gravitated towards her. I watched her in the ring and I saw myself in her and I really saw myself being a wrestler because I saw myself in her. She was representation for me and she also embraced me. I think sometimes, as women and as a woman of color, when you come into a situation we sometimes see each other as competition and she didn’t do that. She completely embraced me, she took me under her wing, she motivated me.”"
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Belair and Naomi actually shared a moment in this year’s women’s Rumble, as the two helped one other to stave off elimination in one of the more memorable spots of the battle royal. While Belair’s hand was ultimately raised in the end, Naomi was also a highlight in the match, lasting over 47 minutes in the match, the second-longest time behind Belair.
You can hear the rest of the interview here.