Bianca Belair Shares Her WWE Tryout Story, The Meaning Of Her “EST” Nickname

Bianca Belair shares the story of Mark Henry scouting her for a WWE tryout.

The newest episode of WWE Chronicle revolves around Bianca Belair and her journey to the main roster. After a discussion about her struggles with bulimia and depression, Belair talked about starting a new chapter in life and rediscovering herself. She also detailed how she was scouted by Mark Henry and the tryout experience itself. Here are her full comments: 

My brother sent me a clip of these women doing CrossFit and I had never seen anything like it. I saw these women with muscles and they were proud of having these muscles. Their bodies were just beautiful, and I was like, I have to do this. You know, I’m starting a new chapter of my life, I want to find the kid in me again. I want to go back to who I was before the world told me who I was supposed to be. I went out there in a pink tutu, literally, glitter’s flying everywhere, and it was so much fun. There was video footage of all this stuff online. My sister-in-law texted me, she was just like, oh my god, your nephew just was going crazy right now because Mark Henry commented on your photo. I was like, that’s fake [laughs]. So I ignored it. Then he actually ended up DMing me, “I want to invite you out to one of our camps.”

I was at the Performance Center, it was a tryout for people that want to be WWE wrestlers. He was just telling me, you know, when you see someone that has it, you just know. Have you ever thought of being a WWE wrestler? He’s like, okay, I can get you a tryout, but I can’t do anything else for you. I can’t get you hired, I can’t get them to like you, just go in there, wear your big bows and your tutu’s, do what you do and you know, that’s all I can do. You have to do the rest. I went in there and left everything on the line. I was jumping as high as I could, I was hitting the rope as hard as I could, I was running as fast as I could, and at the end, everyone just started clapping. I wanted to be happy, but I knew with my luck, I was like, I’m not gonna get happy about this until I’m standing right here in this Performance Center.

I was sitting at home on my bed, I got the phone call and I was like, hello, and Kane was like, hey, just wanted to let you know like I have good news for you. You were one of our top picks for the tryout. We want to hire you we want you to be a WWE Superstar, and I was just like [covers scream of excitement and then calmly replies], great!” 

In the special, Belair says that even though her skills were steadily progressing, she didn’t start feeling like she had something with wrestling until her appearance in the Mae Young Classic. Furthermore, Belair shared the origins of her nickname and how it started with her first-ever promo at an NXT live event.

“[Reading the promo card] “I’m going to get right to the point, here in NXT I’m bringing “est.” I’m the prettiEST woman on this roster, I’m the strongEST woman in this ring, and I’m on a whole other level.” That was my first promo. This is definitely the moment where I thought that I made it. I called my mom and I’m like, I got my very first promo three months in, like, I’m here. This where EST came from because it started as “est.” It was just, I’m the est, I’m the est. I’m the prettiest and the strongest and the baddest and the roughest, oh, est, EST, NXT, it all rhymes. The EST of NXT, EST of WWE, so this is where the EST came from.”

Bianca currently performs on the SmackDown brand where she has been feuding with Bayley. Most recently, she demolished the Role Model in an Obstacle Course Challenge to determine the superior athlete.

On January 8, Bianca Belair and Bayley both declare themselves for the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

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