Bianca Belair went on to win the 2021 30-Woman Royal Rumble match and headlined WWE WrestleMania 37 with Sasha Banks. This came one year after she was called up to the main roster from NXT.
For the past nine months, Belair has been the Raw Women’s Champion. Belair’s rise was discussed on the Public Enemies Podcast by former WWE writer Chris Dunn.
This is where the original plan for the 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble match was revealed.
Original Winner
He revealed that Charlotte Flair was penciled in to win the match. The finish had been practiced, and Flair was going to go over. Belair was going to be eliminated midway through the match. However, fellow writer Ryan Ward presented his case to Vince McMahon about why Belair should win instead of Flair.
“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.”
Belair will make her next title defense at the Royal Rumble against Alexa Bliss this Saturday.
H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription
