Bianca Belair beat Sasha Banks to win the SmackDown Women’s Title at WrestleMania 37. Now, they’ll have a rematch at this month’s SummerSlam.
Speaking to Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Belair reflected on the bout.
“I’ve watched it twice,” she said. “I’ve watched it back by myself, first. It took me like a day to watch it because I wanted to enjoy the moment. I didn’t want to watch it that night and was picking it apart because I’m always my biggest critic. I waited a day or two to watch it. Then I watched it with my parents to enjoy it with them because my dad pauses and rewinds everything. I was like, ‘I can’t watch it with them the first time.’ That match, I can’t really watch it a lot because it gives me goosebumps and I tear up at the beginning every time. I have to prepare myself to watch it every time because that whole moment was bigger than me and Sasha and both of us, as everyone could tell in the beginning. I get those same feelings; just watching it back, I feel like that match was just bread and butter. Everything clicked and worked out in my favor. It’s my favorite match that I’ve ever been a part of and it’s going to be hard to top that. It’s a moment that will go down in history, not just for the technical part and emotional part, but the whole entire moment was amazing.”
Belair also gave an in-character critique of what she could have done better in the match.
“There was a moment in the match, two moments actually, when I went away from trying to compete and win to trying to show off a little bit,” she recalled. “I think I was doing it for myself and my confidence, but also trying to prove to Sasha that ‘I’m nothing to play with.’ It was a moment where I was doing the stalling suplexes where I could have just hit the suplex and maybe got the pin off that, but I did the slingshot off the ropes and I could have gone with that, but I was like, ‘I’m gonna show her what I got,’ so I went to do it again and I took too long and she started fighting. I muscled her up, she fought, I muscled her up again and I did get the suplex, but by that time I had exerted so much energy. I’ve learned from that. Then, there was a moment after the 450 and I freaked out when she kicked out. I freaked out and was like, ‘I have to keep my composure there.’ I let her see that I freaked out. Those two moments stuck out and it was like, ‘Okay, you have to compete. Pick your moments where you’re going to showboat and when you’re going to compete.'”
H/T to Fightful
