#1: Bianca Belair
On April 12, 2016, after two tryouts, WWE signed Bianca Belair to the WWE Performance Center and the NXT brand. Rumor has it that she made her in-ring segment debut at an NXT live show where she announced herself as “Binky Blair,” but we’re not certain of that to be 100%. Her in-ring debut took place in September 2016 where she would lose to Aliyah at an NXT house show. On the May 3, 2017, episode of NXT, Belair made her debut on NXT television in an NXT Women’s Championship #1 Contender’s Battle Royal. She would be eliminated by Billie Kay and Peyton Royce.
Bianca Belair would go on an undefeated streak and feud with the likes of Lacey Evans, Dakota Kai, Mia Yim, and Candice LeRae. Belair would contend for the NXT Women’s Championship against Shayna Baszler. Baszler would cause Belair to submit. Belair would challenge Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT TakeOver: Portland, but she would come up short once again. In Bianca Belair’s last NXT match, Belair would suffer a loss to the returning Charlotte Flair in twelve minutes and three seconds. Flair would (kayfabe) injure Belair’s ankle, leading to her being taken off of television for a couple of months.
Belair would make her main roster debut in a mixed tag team match siding with The Street Profits taking on the trio of Angel Garza, Austin Theory, and Zelina Vega. Her trio would be victorious. She would go on to enter a mini-feud with Zelina Vega that was quietly dropped later on. In the October 2020 WWE Draft, Bianca Belair would be drafted to SmackDown.
On SmackDown, Bianca Belair would pick up victories over Bayley, Zelina Vega, and Natalya before teaming with WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks in a match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. The duo would not end up victorious on that SmackDown episode, but this would plant the seeds for something much greater. At the 2021 Royal Rumble, Bianca Belair would outlast 29 other women to win the Royal Rumble match and earn a women’s championship opportunity at WrestleMania. Bianca Belair has now entered a title program with Sasha Banks and will be facing her at WrestleMania 37 this coming April 2021.
Say what you will about the rest of her main roster existence, but that Royal Rumble win has etched her name into the history books. Bianca Belair is showcased consistently on WWE programming and is slated to contend in (one of) the main events at WrestleMania 37. Belair is an incredible in-ring talent, has put on consistent performances on SmackDown, and has been a trailblazer for women in professional wrestling amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, and for the future, Bianca Belair is our pick for the number one main roster call-up of 2020
