Bianca Belair shares how the signature braid came to be.
Tonight at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix, Bianca Belair will have her first match on a TakeOver main card as she goes one-on-one with Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship. Bianca has stated in interviews leading up this championship match that she has been eager for this moment and patiently awaiting her opportunity to shine.
Bianca has the chance to capitalize on her words this evening and she'll be looking to bring her entire arsenal to the bout including her signature hair whip which she uses on special occasions. Whenever Belair uses the braid it sends a "snap" noise throughout the building and while talking with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald, she shared how the braid became a part of the Bianca Belair character and how her husband and current EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Montez Ford convinced her to keep the braid.
“So when I first started, I was trying to figure out who I wanted to be, what I wanted to do. How I was going to standout so I had an idea of wearing a long braid. I looked around and saw no one else had a hairstyle like that, and I was trying to go back and forth between: ‘Do I want to just wear my hair down? And have waves and curls like everyone else? Or do I want to wear this braid?' So my husband [Montez Ford] was actually the one who told me, ‘You need to keep that braid. That makes you stand out’. He pushed me towards that, and at first it was just the thing of just, something that made me stand out, and I actually was in the ring, and he was watching me [and told me] I could probably use that braid in the ring, and it was one day, I was in the ring and Sarah, my coach Sarah [Amato], she asked me, ‘Can you hit her with it?’ So that was the first time I tried it, and that’s when I realized I can use this thing in the ring and the first person that I actually used it on was Ruby Riott in California, and that was the first time I ever used it and that was the first time it ever made the noise and from that moment on, that’s where it all started and it never stopped since then.” Bianca recalled.
Fightful's TakeOver: Phoenix coverage article goes live in just a few hours and immediately following the show is our post-TakeOver review podcast which can be viewed here on the site or on the Fightful Pro Wrestling YouTube channel.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
