Bianca Belair is overpushed by WWE
Here’s a friendly reminder to Triple H and WWE that Bayley is your 2024 Royal Rumble winner and your current WWE Women’s champion, but she is being overshadowed by Bianca Belair. Regardless of Bianca winning the Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania XL with Jade Cargill or not, her face is all over the place. From WrestleMania posters to simple media and WWE live events, Bianca Belair can be seen and being promoted well by WWE.
Fair enough, Bianca Belair is as good as Bayley based on being an in-ring performer, but WWE must be reminded that she is not your top champion as of the moment that carries WWE. Bayley fought hard to win the WWE Women’s championship against former Damage CTRL stablemate Iyo Sky in a stellar feud, but it was instead watered down by WWE.
WWE failed to put focus on a potential huge feud in 2024 due to a great amount of audience interest in the Damage CTRL implosion on SmackDown weeks before the big event. It was frustrating that Bayley, as the Royal Rumble match winner, did not get any top spotlight she deserved in promoting WrestleMania. In turn we got Bianca Belair instead even without any prior feud or match weeks before WrestleMania.
This does not mean that I’m a huge Bayley fan because of my past column here at NoDQ about Damage CTRL and Bayley. I am also not a Bianca Belair hater because I like her in-ring power, but let’s be honest here for a moment. I like both of these WWE wrestlers, and both of them have individual strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics. The point here is, Bayley had it all for a potential good spot in the card, but the treatment does not fit her as the Royal Rumble match winner and WWE Women’s Champion.
Had Triple H forgotten the past where Bayley was one of the most sought after in the women’s division of WWE because of the “Four Horsewomen” and their amazing feud and match at NXT Takeover with the likes of Sasha Banks (AKA Mercedes Mone)? What’s the point of the “women’s revolution” way back in 2016 when a full-pledged PLE for WWE women’s division was created 3 years after? Triple H still has no consistency, and it’s getting worse for the entire women’s division which also includes the men’s midcard.
Undeniably, the storyline involving Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes this year was nothing but amazingly stellar. Triple H was good at making long-term storytelling, especially in the main event picture. Right now, after Gunther lost his Intercontinental title against Sami Zayn, there was little to no interest already.
It is worse, however, with the current situation of the women’s division of WWE from the world title picture down to the midcard scene. Jobbers are jobbers of the WWE roster and they will keep on losing, and this will depend if WWE higher ups will give them a chance to make them shine on their own. This entire situation surrounding the women’s division is similar to the 2018 WWE that had a lot of inconsistencies from the one and only Vince McMahon.
An example here is the unforeseen injury of Rhea Ripley when her last notable televised championship defense was against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania XL. Instead of giving others a chance to become world champion, WWE made Becky Lynch the women’s world champion. This was like, Becky should’ve won against Rhea Ripley at ‘Mania but we got ourselves here. WWE should’ve prolong the storyline without breaking other wrestler’s momentum.
Going back to Bayley, her face turn was not felt at all weeks after her “beef” with Damage CTRL. This was significantly stopped due to the WWE Draft that separated them. While Bianca Belair is having a good time teaming up with Jade Cargill as Women’s Tag Team champions, her promotional treatment remained the same. This reminds me of John Cena when he was more promoted or included in posters and advertisements of WWE rather than their current champion during those times of CM Punk’s 434-day reign.
At the end of the day however, making Bianca Belair their top WWE wrestler regardless of being champion or not is a corporate decision. Majority of the audience, especially kids, like to watch Bianca Belair perform in the ring due to her current gimmick. This is in contrast with Bayley’s “role model” gimmick which is far from her former “hugger” gimmick which is fit for a PG programming.
I still don’t feel good about Bayley’s face turn angle being watered down for at least a week after the incident on SmackDown before WrestleMania XL since it may turn out as the biggest storyline in WWE’s women’s division maybe close enough to The Bloodline storyline, but WWE didn’t give a chance for it to become a highlight of its own. All we got was more TV exposure for Bianca Belair and doing her hair flips as she makes her entrance on a weekly basis.