Bianca Belair Reflects on the Emotions After Her WrestleMania 37 Title Win

– New SmackDown Women’s champion Bianca Belair spoke to Brent Bookhouse with CBS Sports following her title victory over Sasha Banks last Saturday at WrestleMania 37 Night 1. Belair discussed the emotions she went through and processing the win and spending time with her family after the match, along with the importance of the match representing women of color. Below are some highlights.

Bianca Belair on the impact of her win: “It’s still hitting me. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it. It’s been a whirlwind of emotions, even since we found out. It was announced I was going to be the main event on my birthday and it was like I was trying to wrap my mind around that. But before I could, we were standing out there. That’s why I was so emotional. That’s when it hit me that we were the main event, when I was standing out there across from Sasha Banks. Then, having my hand raised as SmackDown women’s champion, it hit me when I heard the fans and when I was celebrating with my family and my husband, but I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it. I keep saying it feels like a dream. It still feels so unreal, but I know it’s so real.”

On seeing her family after the match: “My family came back to the hotel and I just wanted to spend time with them. After they left, I didn’t really sleep last night. I was like, ‘I just main-evented WrestleMania. I just created history in my debut at WrestleMania. I won the title. Am I supposed to go to sleep? Do I eat food? I don’t know what to do right now.’ I didn’t know what to do with myself and just kind of laid in bed and tried to grasp what happened.”

On her performance and how the match represented women of color: “I was very happy with the performance. I haven’t watched it back yet because I’m super critical of myself. I just want to live in the moment right now and be happy because I know when I watch it back, I’m going to be critiquing myself and saying, ‘You should have done this. You should have done that.’ Even though I won, I’m still going to critique myself. I loved the match and my thing was that I understood how big the moment was and how big of an opportunity it was. I understood that this moment was more than just about us. We were representing for women, we were representing for women of color. I just wanted to deliver and live up to the moment.”

Bianca Belair on the importance of representation: “WrestleMania in itself is already a huge deal. When you’re in WWE and anyone asks what your goals are, you say you want to go to WrestleMania. The biggest goal is to main event at WrestleMania. WrestleMania is already a unique event itself, and there’s already pressure to live up to the expectations of being at WrestleMania. To be able to create history at WrestleMania — to be able to create history and main event at WrestleMania? I don’t think there’s anything bigger than that. There was pressure and it was a big deal to us. I always say representation is not a request, it’s a requirement. I think WWE is an amazing example of how women and women of color in the world and in the world of sports should be celebrated. They always put us on a platform to where we can show up and we can show out.”