With her matchup against current WWE NXT Women’s Champion, Shayna Baszler, looming at the end of the month, Bianca Belair is readying herself for the most important match of her career to date. The two will clash for the championship at this month’s Royal Rumble event.
Bianca recently did an interview with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald. During their conversation, she spoke about being apart of the NXT roster and training at the WWE Performance Center. She even addressed the origin of her famous hair whip attack.
She calls being in NXT an “experience like none other.” Despite playing almost every sport imaginable in her youth and during her high school years, she’s “never had an experience like this.”
“[…] I feel like I have a great background [in sports] that grounds me. I’m able to pick up all things very quickly. I’m coachable. But with that being said, wrestling is nothing like anything I’ve ever done before,” she admits.
“It’s a skill in its own. It’s an art. It’s a craft. Stepping in the Performance Center two and a half years ago for the first time I barely knew anything and started from the bottom and worked my way from the top. I’m just so grateful to be surrounded by amazing coaches, amazing facility, and everything is provided for us. It basically just sets us up for success. It’s been a great experience being here and NXT.”
Hair Whip
If you’ve watched Biana Belair compete in-ring, you’ll know that a major part of her look is her long, braided hairstyle — one that she uses against her opponent whenever the opportunity arises.
When she first debuted, however, she had no idea she would end up incorporating a braid attack into her arsenal.
“When I first started, I was trying to figure out who I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, and how I was going to stand out. I had an idea of wearing a long braid. I looked around and saw no one else had a hairstyle like that. I was going back and forth, ‘Do I want to just wear my hair down, have waves, curls, like everyone else or do I want to wear this braid?’
So, my husband [Montez Ford] was the one who told me ‘No, you need to keep that braid. It makes you stand out.’ He pushed me towards that,” she said.
“At first, it was just this thing of just standing out and I was actually in the ring, he was watching and he told me that, ‘I could probably use that braid in the ring.’
One day I was in the with Sarah [Stock, NXT Coach]. She asked me, ‘Can you hit [your opponent] with it?’ That was the first time I tried it, and that’s when I realized I can actually use this thing in the ring. The first person I actually used it on was Ruby Riott in California. It was the first time it ever made the noise. That’s when it all started and has never stopped since then.”
Will we see Bianca utilize the hair whip against Shayna at the Rumble? Will she be victorious in her attempt at the championship?
