{"id":112461,"date":"2022-04-04T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=112461"},"modified":"2022-04-03T19:13:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T23:13:27","slug":"bianca-belairs-wrestlemania-38-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/04\/bianca-belairs-wrestlemania-38-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"How WWE Built Bianca Belair\u2019s WrestleMania 38 Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Creating a genuinely beloved and successful babyface champion is no easy task in the current pro wrestling climate. So far, the nascent decade of the 2020s has seen the heralded rise and ignominious flame-outs of the respective championship reigns of <strong>New Japan Pro-Wrestling\u2019s<\/strong> <strong>Kota Ibushi<\/strong> and <strong>WWE&#8217;s<\/strong> <strong>Big E. <\/strong>Both were fan favorites whose actual reigns failed to meet expectations, through no fault of their own. However, in latter 2020 and 2021, WWE managed to capture genuine lightning in a bottle with former <em><strong>NXT<\/strong><\/em> ingenue <strong>Bianca Belair, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/07\/11\/sasha-banks-bianca-belair-win-espy\/\" target=\"_self\">who captured the <strong><em>Friday Night SmackDown <\/em><\/strong>women\u2019s title in a historic bout at 2021\u2019s <strong><em>WrestleMania 37<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> Although her fortunes seemed on the wane prior to the \u2018road to <em>WrestleMania\u2019<\/em>, Bianca Belair&#8217;s <strong><em>WrestleMania Saturday<\/em><\/strong> over <strong>Becky Lynch<\/strong> proved to be the culmination of one of WWE\u2019s most surprisingly effective narratives of recent memory.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Looking Back on Bianca Belair&#8217;s WrestleMania Victory<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/u5CYy_2Kmqw<\/p>\n<h3><strong>SummerSlam 2021 and the Aftermath<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Heading into 2021\u2019s installment of <em><strong>SummerSlam<\/strong>, <\/em>Belair was fresh off a string of pay-per-view victories in her <em>SmackDown<\/em> feud with <strong>Bayley<\/strong>. She faced the former <em>SmackDown<\/em> women\u2019s champion at <strong><em>WrestleMania: Backlash <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in May 2021, and retained the \u201cblue brand\u201d\u2019s title. Bayley and Belair closed out the ThunderDome era of WWE PPVs the following month at June\u2019s <em><strong>Hell in a Cell<\/strong>.<\/em> It was another victory for Belair. She was set to face <strong>Sasha Banks<\/strong> at <em>SummerSlam, <\/em>but as Banks was a no-show <strong>Carmella <\/strong>was tapped in as Belair\u2019s challenger.<\/p>\n<p>However, Carmella was merely a stalking horse. <strong>Becky Lynch<\/strong> returned after an absence of over a year from WWE, and captured the SmackDown title from Belair in mere seconds. What followed was a rapid transformation for Lynch, as her antihero persona \u201cThe Man\u201d evolved into the grandiose heel \u201cBig Time Becks\u201d. Following the autumn 2021 draft, Lynch swapped titles with then <strong><em>Monday Night Raw<\/em><\/strong> women\u2019s champion <strong>Charlotte Flair<\/strong>, and both she and Belair decamped to Raw\u2019s women\u2019s division. Belair\u2019s attempt to capture the Raw title from Lynch was booked as a loss, igniting genuine shock and consternation.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bianca Belair cuts off Becky Lynch\u2019s hair: Raw, March 28, 2022\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vBauO7UpZZE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Lynch and Belair\u2019s Paths Diverge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As 2021 drew to a close, Lynch dug deeper into her <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/08\/28\/becky-lynch-heel-turn-appeal\/\" target=\"_self\">divisive heel persona<\/a>, entering into a feud with the perpetual scrappy challenger, <strong>Liv Morgan. <\/strong>Belair\u2019s stock seemed to dip on the Raw roster. Her midcard feud with <strong>Doudrop <\/strong>was admirably executed by both superstars, but midcard all the same. As the <strong><em>Royal Rumble <\/em><\/strong>drew closer, speculation grew that Belair would be the last woman standing at 2022\u2019s event as she had been at 2021\u2019s; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/01\/29\/ronda-rousey-returns-wins-royal-rumble\/\" target=\"_self\">Ronda Rousey\u2019s victory dashed these hopes<\/a>. <\/strong>Lynch\u2019s and Belair\u2019s paths seems to have diverged, with Lynch as an unassailable heel champion<strong>,<\/strong> and Belair languishing on Raw\u2019s midcard. Both turns of events drew criticism-Lynch\u2019s beloved tweener persona, and Belair\u2019s rising star, both seemed to have fallen victim to WWE\u2019s questionable booking.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Road to WrestleMania<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>However, as 2022\u2019s \u2018Road to WrestleMania\u2019 transpired, the narrative began to take shape. Belair outlasted \u00a0<strong>Nikki A.S.H., Doudrop, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, <\/strong>and <strong>Alexa Bliss <\/strong>in the \u00a0women\u2019s <strong><em>Elimination Chamber <\/em><\/strong>match on February 19 <em>\u00a0<\/em>to win a Raw women\u2019s title match at <em>WrestleMania 38.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From there, the tension between Belair and Lynch intensified into a litany of attacks and grievances.<\/p>\n<p>The roles they were cast as opposite each other were now clear. Lynch\u2019s portrayal of a cocky heel took a while to find its feet, but as usual her inherent intensity came to her aid in creating a character with megalomaniacal shades akin to <strong>Seth Rollins\u2019s <\/strong>\u201cVisionary\u201d and <strong>Roman Reigns\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cTribal Chief.\u201d To take on this new persona, Lynch had a difficult task-to murder the one that came before it, the character that made her a generational star. No vestiges of \u201cThe Man\u201d, with that character\u2019s resilient and amoral simplicity, remained in the flashy, vicious \u201cBig Time Becks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"i2Jrs6DhTMtpufK17HVCVQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1346444446\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'i2Jrs6DhTMtpufK17HVCVQ',sig:'qt6KUju2GRxzH7Luz9yFj9kDiFzPMoVzYCHf98MVox0=',w:'440px',h:'594px',items:'1346444446',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bianca Belair&#8217;s WrestleMania Victory &#8211; In Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>While Belair\u2019s early losses to Lynch seemed to indicate that her 2020-2021 push was a thing of the past, the opposite was the case. Her narrative had remained, as it always was, one of meeting her adversary\u2019s aggression with determination. In Lynch, Belair found an adversary who turned up the pressure and sent her on a hero\u2019s journey to regroup and come back stronger. WWE\u2019s audiences watched Lynch become ever more villainous, and Belair claw her way back to her former glory. In a challenging ballet of wills between champion and challenger on April 2, WrestleMania Saturday, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/02\/andnew-bianca-belair-wrestlemania\/\" target=\"_self\">Belair claimed the Raw women\u2019s title<\/a>. Thanks to WWE\u2019s carefully laid narrative, of Lynch\u2019s metamorphosis and Belair\u2019s resilience, her second WrestleMania victory felt not just deserved but genuinely triumphant.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creating a genuinely beloved and successful babyface champion is no easy task in the current pro wrestling climate. So far, the nascent decade of the 2020s has seen the heralded rise and ignominious flame-outs of the respective championship reigns of New Japan Pro-Wrestling\u2019s Kota Ibushi and WWE&#8217;s Big E. Both were fan favorites whose actual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4152,"featured_media":112466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,25,26,317,4,3,320],"tags":[160,163,1445,403,7821,217,7872,3041,1284,159],"class_list":["post-112461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-women","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-bayley","tag-becky-lynch","tag-bianca-belair","tag-charlotte-flair","tag-doudrop","tag-liv-morgan","tag-nikki-a-s-h","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sasha-banks"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}