Bianca Belair, the winner of the 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble, was involved in an innovative spot with Naomi during Sunday’s battle royal.
As seen in the video below, Naomi latched onto Belair’s hair to pull herself back into the ring and stave off elimination. After exchanging a few blows while clinging to the bottom rope, the two women eventually worked in tandem to get themselves back into the ring.
“That’s definitely one of my favorite moments of the match,” Belair told Khal from Complex in a recent interview. “I got to be in the ring with Naomi last year for the Royal Rumble for a very short time. But having that moment with her, we both almost being eliminated and dangling off of the rope and realizing like, ‘Look, if we got to do this together, we have to work together.’
“And when we finally work together, we end up saving ourselves in the process. So that was an amazing moment to have with her and shared everything with her and I’ve always looked forward to like just getting in the ring and creating magic with her because she’s so athletic and she’s so talented.”
Belair went onto explain why she was “naturally gravitated” towards Naomi even before joining NXT.
“I remember right before I went to NXT, I went to a show in Atlanta when I was living there,” recalled Belair. “I believe it was like a six women tag and Naomi came out. It was my first time seeing her live. It’s crazy how I just naturally just gravitated towards her.
“I was about a month away from going to the Performance Center and seeing her in the ring really helped me imagine seeing myself in the ring; I could see myself through her. So, just remembering that moment from seeing her before I got to NXT so now being able to share the ring with her and actually working together with her to save ourselves, that was an amazing and special moment in the Royal Rumble.”
As reported earlier, there is still some uncertainty over Belair’s WrestleMania opponent.