Here are my top 5 favorite black wrestling moments of 2021
1. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks main event WM37 Night 1 - To see two black people let alone two black women main eventing a WrestleMania was unheard of, but this past year at WM37 Night 1, that finally became a reality when Bianca Belair & Sasha Banks main evented Night 1 of WrestleMania 37 and these two black Women absolutely tore the house down in the greatest women’s wrestling match in WrestleMania History. I absolutely love the story that was told in this match of Bianca’s superior athleticism, speed, and power vs Sasha’s superior ring tactical and being the phenomenal ring general that she is. Sasha puts over and elevated women far better than Charlotte and that’s a fact. Even though Bianca won The Smackdown Women’s Title, but it was both sistas and the black wrestling community that won on that night. This match is the most influential women’s wrestling match of the current decade.
2. Bobby Lashley’s Historic WrestleMania Moment - Many black wrestling fans like myself were very upset when WWE decided to controversially break up the hottest thing they had going for them in The Hurt Business for the sake of desperately trying to get Drew McIntyre his WrestleMania moment that he was robbed of last year through absolutely no fault of his own. But come the very first match of WM37 Night 1 between Bobby & Drew, they had a very good match between two Big Meaty Men which resulted in Bobby Lashley doing something that Dewayne Johnson never did at the peak of his career in WWE: walk into WrestleMania as WWE Champion & walk out of WrestleMania as WWE Champion at WM37 Night 1 & that’s a black wrestling history moment that tends to get overshadowed by the other black wrestling historic moment that happened at the end of WM37 Night 1 with Bianca/Sasha main eventing.
3. The Crowning Of The Inaugural Black Wrestlers Matter Champion - This past Juneteenth at Black Wrestlers Matter 2, we saw another historic black wrestling moment that was made when Jah-C & JDX had put on a absolute 30 minute technical wrestling clinic of a main event match in which Jah-C became inaugural Black Wrestlers Matter Champion to close the show. The previous matches from the show ranged from good to very good, but the main event match between Jah-C & JDX absolutely stole the show in my favorite men’s wrestling match of 2021.
4. Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz become Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions - Let’s be honest, the first three years of Kiera Hogan’s run in Impact was pretty uneventful in which she was not only lost in the shuffle, but she was snubbed out of a Knockout Title Match last year against then-Knockouts Champion in Jordynne Grace when Deonna Purazzo came in & was absolutely hot shotted into the Impact Knockouts title match without no sort of buildup or story leading to the matchup they had at last year’s Slammiversary. When Tasha Steelz came to Impact during the peak of The Pandemic Era last year, it forever changed the trajectory of Kiera Hogan’s run in Impact where they became the most entertaining act on Impact, but also made black wrestling history by becoming the first two black women to ever win The Impact Knockouts Tag Team Titles where they carried the entire Knockouts Tag Team Division throughout the entire Pandemic Era right up until Kiera Hogan left Impact several months earlier.
5. Bianca Belair #1 on PWI Women’s Top 150 - This past October, current WWE SuperStar Bianca Belair became ranked #1 on PWI Women’s Top 150, but she’s the 2nd black woman to ever top PWI Women’s rankings with The Legendary Awesome Kong being the very first to ever achieve that during the peak of her career in 2008. Bianca Belair has had a historic year in 2021 such as becoming to the first black woman to win The Royal Rumble this past January, having a significant historic main event match with one of the greatest all time women’s wrestlers in Sasha Banks at WM37 Night 1, winning an ESPY, and performing at a rap festival called “The Rolling Loud” in Miami. Those reasons that I just named are legitimate tea as to why Bianca Belair is deserving of that #1 ranking, some folks saying that Britt Baker or Thunder Rosa should’ve been #1, but with all due respect to those two women as good of a year as both of them have had, but neither one of them have had the amazingly historic year that Bianca has had nor would both of them even do half of the things that Bianca has done in a few years that they will always dream of doing because while they’re both stars, Bianca however is a SuperStar.
Honorable Mentions:
Trish Adora vs Tootie Lynn in first ever 30 Minute Iron Woman Match at BACW
Big E/Crews in first ever all-black IC Title Match at WM37
The Inaugural Black Girl Magik
Lashley/Kofi in first ever all-black WWE Title match at MITB
Big E becomes the first ever black wrestler to win The MITB Ladder Match
The Conclusion - 2021 has been in my opinion the the best year to ever be a black wrestling fan because the future is looking bright for black wrestling community as a whole.
By Kwame Shakir
