WWE Raw star and the current WWE Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair who is also a former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion recently looked back at her NXT Takeover Phoenix match from January, 2019 where she faced Shayna Baszler.
Bianca Belair started a professional wrestling career back in 2016 directly under WWE so she had a big chance to shine really fast. She spent over 3 years in the NXT and she became extremely popular among the NXT fans even though she failed to win any Championship in the NXT.
Bianca Belair Remembers Takeover Match That Helped Her Gain Her Confidence Back
Soon she came to the main roster and at Royal Rumble 2020 she participated in the women’s Royal Rumble match and she had been really dominant in that match as she eliminated eight wrestlers single handedly which had been a record in the Women’s Royal Rumble match. She had been pretty dominant in the main roster and her main event push started after she won the Women’s Royal Rumble match of 2021.
She went on to challenge Sasha Banks for the WWE SmackDown women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37 and she won the title. On the very next year at WrestleMania 38 she challenge Becky Lynch for the WWE Raw Women’s championship and she won the title as well. She is currently holding the WWE Raw Women’s Championship quite strongly.
Becky Lynch defended her WWE RAW Women’s Championship against Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 38. The match was built up for quite a long time. It did not have a very good storyline but a lot of fans were waiting to see this match at the grandest stage of them all.
The feud between Becky and Bianca continued till Summerslam and it was officially won by Bianca. After the feud ended, she started a new feud with Bayley and her Damage CTRL stable and she won it too. At WrestleMania 39, she defeated Asuka and successfully defeated her to retain her title.
Bianca Belair who is also a former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion recently spoke to The Ringer where she looked back at her NXT Takeover Phoenix match from January, 2019 where she faced Shayna Baszler. She said;
“Yeah, that (NXT TakeOver: Phoenix) was a poor memory for me in WWE and NXT because before that, I was on the whole undefeated streak in NXT. And I remember I had a lot of confidence. But when I got to TakeOver, I was, like, dealing with impostor syndrome a little bit because it was my very first TakeOver and my first time on the stage and really showing people that I can go in there and I can hang with the champion… And so I was like, OK, let me go in here and, whatever, show these people.
“But I learned a whole lot from Shayna… [She’s] like a complete package. She brings the physical part. She’s great on the mic. She’s great with personality. Honestly, my mama, one of her favorites is Shayna Baszler. She loves Shayna… I learned a lot from her just being in the ring with her… That match was very important for me to build the confidence of, like, no, you belong here.”