Daily DDT’s 2021 Women’s Wrestler of the Year: Bianca Belair
Let’s turn the clock back a little bit to Jan. 26, 2019, at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix. On that show, then-NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler took on a young upstart challenger by the name of Bianca Belair.
Belair, who had only about three years of experience by this point and had spent most of that time as a cocky heel, was thrust into the unfamiliar role as a babyface, particularly one in an underdog role against the menacing Baszler.
Midway through the match, Baszler used Belair’s braid to yank her into yank her shoulder-first into the ring post. As the referee drew closer to the count of 10, Belair tried to drag herself back to the ring, but as she reached for the ropes with her injured arm, the pain from Baszler’s attack caused her to recoil, which turned a mundane cutoff spot into a tense near-countout sequence.
That simple spot made clear what many fans had known for a while: Belair is a quick study to this pro wrestling stuff and has a great chance to rise to superstardom. In 2021 — in spite of WWE’s missteps — that potential has been realized.
As voted by Daily DDT writers, Bianca Belair is 2021’s Women’s Wrestler of the Year.
Becoming a star in today’s WWE requires a wrestler (and their character, to be more specific) to develop a measure of Teflon that protects them from the inevitable barrage of questionable booking decisions. In far too many cases, fans have watched as promising star after promising star succumbed to whatever nonsense the company concocted for them.
Belair is another one of those transcendent stars that most labeled as “can’t miss”, but in her case, WWE seems to somewhat recognize what they have in the former University of Tennessee track star.
As each year passed, Belair’s magnetism as an on-screen presence, confidence on the microphone, and growth in the ring became too obvious for anyone to ignore, so much so that she outlasted 29 other women to win the 2021 women’s Royal Rumble and get a women’s championship match of her choice at WrestleMania 37.
From there, fans quickly made it known who they wanted to see “The EST” face: then-SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks. Even as WWE chipped away at Banks and Belair’s feud with the tired “Can they co-exist?” trope, it did little to dim the shining moment Belair and Banks experienced at ‘Mania.
For those 17 minutes and 15 seconds, all of the pointless tag team matches and ineffective segments with Reginald did matter, as the chance to finally see two Black women main event the biggest pay-per-view of the year for a promotion that, for decades, was loath to have even one Black person headline a PPV.
Of course, we all (should) know by now that this institutional gatekeeping is just that and not some manufactured referendum (created by those in charge) on any ideas of others not getting the same chances over the years due to “not working hard enough” or “not being good enough”, but that match — which also earned Women’s Match of the Year honors from Daily DDT writers — showed how correct of a decision it was to place them in that spot.
At the end of the day, though, this was about establishing Belair as a superstar, and with one K.O.D and ensuing pinfall, that’s exactly what happened, as she became the new SmackDown Women’s Champion, the first championship of her WWE career.
From there…well, Belair ran into the expected booking inconsistencies and bad luck. The rekindled rivalry with Bayley was fun but lasted a little too long and unfortunately ended without a conclusion when Bayley injured her knee. Her anticipated rematch with Banks never came to fruition over the summer. And we all know what happened at SummerSlam 2021.
dark. Next. Daily DDT 2021 Male Wrestler of the Year: Roman Reigns
Yes, Belair’s 2021 suffered from some promotional mistakes that runners-up Britt Baker and Deonna Purrazzo (who both had amazing years in their own right) didn’t have to endure. But even with those creative errors in judgment, Belair’s consistency on the mic and in the ring remained a constant highlight on WWE television, which makes her year all the more remarkable.