Recently, on Smackdown, Bianca Belair made the announcement in the ring by telling current Smackdown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks, “I’ll see you at WrestleMania” and doing the famous pointing at The WrestleMania Sign moment. The match is now official: Bianca Belair vs Sasha Banks at WrestleMania 37 for The Smackdown Women’s Title.
I absolutely love Bianca Belair because she represents the type of black woman that many young black girls today aspire to be. When I look at Bianca Belair, she is one of only a few women who has “the total package” that you like to see in a woman wrestler. She can cut promos, she has the athleticism, strength, power, charisma, and she can even lift a man as heavy as Otis as seen during the memorable segment with Bayley on Smackdown last month. When I look at a woman who’s very strong and athletically gifted like Bianca Belair, she’s literally the modern day black female version of Chyna.
When I saw Bianca for the first time in a squash match on NXT a few years ago, I immediately fell in love with her because I knew that she will be something special later on down the line. Bianca Belair has had to overcome a lot of obstacles being thrown at her way from being told to water down her blackness by her track coach, being criticized by Sam Roberts that she “isn’t fit to be NXT Women’s Champion” to even being criticized for showing her true black beauty with her braids and by the fact that she’s not an “indie darling” like many women on the current NXT women’s roster are with the exception of Raquel Gonzalez. One struggle she had to overcome was being pushed by her track coach so hard that she had suffered from depression and also had a binge eating disorder which is common amongst not only young regular women, but especially among many young women’s wrestlers in their mid teens through 20s.
Unlike Bianca Belair, Sasha Banks actually started wrestling on the indie scene by her real name Mercedes KV in 2010 and was signed by WWE a few years later and when she was in NXT, she had good matches against the likes of Becky and Charlotte, but the best match of her entire wrestling career even she would tell you is that phenomenal classic match that she had with her real life rival and best friend Bayley at NXT Takeover Brooklyn in 2015 which is regarded by many including myself as “The Best WWE Women’s Wrestling Match Ever”. The only other WWE women’s match to me personally that rivaled that was Asuka vs Ember Moon at NXT Takeover Brooklyn III in 2017.
Sasha Banks has a lot of haters out there in the IWC & YWC, but they can never deny that she is an absolute god level in the ring because she can make a woman on the current main roster who’s nowhere near as good as her have a good match with her. We saw it with Carmella who easily had the best match of her entire wrestling career against Sasha at TLC 2020 and hell as much as I personally can’t stand this other woman in Ronda Rousey who easily in my opinion has the worst and most overrated rookie year of anyone in WWE history. The only bright spot from Ronda’s part-time rookie year in WWE was that Sasha Banks easily gave her the best match of her rookie year at Royal Rumble 2019.
Fast Forward to 2021, Bianca vs Sasha is a dream match that many people like myself have wanted ever since Bianca Belair “got called up” to the main roster in a very forgettable Raw After WM36 last year. This match should make history as the first all-black women’s main event since 4 black women main evented a wrestling event at The Legendary Boston Garden in the 1950s.
There hasn’t been two black wrestlers that were in the main event of a WWE in 20 years since The Rock & Booker T fought for The Big Gold Belt at SummerSlam 2001. There have been some instances of two black women wrestling on WWE preshows, but never on the main card and Bianca & Sasha would definitely end the non-main card and 20 years of non-black main events in WWE at WM37. This should be the second main event for the women in WrestleMania history because the first one from two years ago is one of the worst main event matches in WrestleMania history.
This match is so big because of the historical significance of it and the fact that we’ll probably never ever see this type of match ever again at WrestleMania sadly. This match is the biggest match of both Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks career especially Sasha because she has never even won a match at WrestleMania because she’s 0-5 at WrestleMania and this match is much bigger than he classic Takeover Brooklyn match against rival and real life best friend Bayley from 2015.
I am happy to see two black women finally main event a wrestling event in my lifetime especially the biggest wrestling event of the entire year in WrestleMania. This match will be talked about for years and years to come.
The Conclusion - I expect Bianca and Sasha to not only main event one of the two nights of WM37, but these two women will definitely tear the house down in front of 50,000 real fans at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. But this historic dream match will be seen in person, online, and flat screen LCD TVs by the black wrestling culture who supports these two amazing black female wrestlers who will definitely be doing this historic match at WM37 For The Culture ✊🏿.
By Kwame Shakir
