Bianca Belair (Credit: Getty Images)
She won the Royal Rumble in 2021, main-evented WrestleMania 37 and defeated Sasha Banks to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
WWE said she comes from a long line of African-American trailblazers, including her great-grandfather Edward N. She said she saw photographs and newspaper clippings about her relatives in her grandmother’s home and heard about their achievements and struggles. Mark Henry saw Belair at a CrossFit competition and told her to look into WWE.
Bianca Belair’s rise to WWE superstardom has been defined by her incredible athleticism, her confidence and her championship success; but behind The EST persona is a deeply personal story built on family values, determination and a belief in building a legacy for future generations. WWE itself has noted how Belair’s family history has shaped the mindset that has helped her pursue greatness. Belair has always defined family as more than just the immediate kin. Toole, a pioneering licensed electrician; her grandfather Edward G. High, a respected biochemist and educator; and her mother’s godfather Z. Alexander Looby, a civil rights lawyer and activist. Belair was given a strong early identity by those stories. But that change eventually led to professional wrestling. Later, she remembered that he believed in her, and that made her own confidence stronger before she took the opportunity seriously. Belair’s WWE breakthrough proves just how well those experiences translate to wrestling.