Bianca Belair joined Chris Van Vliet for an interview on his INSIGHT podcast where she spoke about her EST nickname, her trademark ponytail and more.
The following are highlights:
On becoming The EST: "So I was in NXT. I remember Mark Henry. He came down to the Performance Center and we were having a talk. It was before I knew what I wanted to be. He's asking me all these questions that I didn't really understand at the time. He's like, 'What do you want to be? What do you want to represent? What do you want your character to be?' I'm like, I don't know. He's like, 'Well, you need something that when somebody sees you, they know exactly who you are, what you're about, before you even open your mouth to talk, before you even do anything. Everything has to make sense, from your gear to the way you present yourself, to your wrestling moves, everything has to make sense, and it has to be simple enough to make sense.' So I was like, 'Well, I don't know, because I feel like I'm not just one thing. I'm a lot of things. I'm not just someone who does strong, powerful moves, I'm not just strong, but I'm the best at that. I'm the strongest, but I'm also this, and I'm also this.' And he's like, 'You have to simplify it.' I'm like, 'How do I simplify this? I'm just the best at everything. I can't just put myself in a box. I'm the strongest, I'm the fastest, I'm the roughest, I'm the toughest, I'm the quickest, I'm the greatest, I'm the best.' Whoa, wait, all those things in an EST. Oh, so I'm the EST of everything. So it really all just came together in this one promo that I had on a coconut show. I was just kind of rambling, and it all just came together and it stuck. And so I just became the EST of NXT, now EST of WWE."
On the hair braid becoming part of her character: "So I was, again, I was trying to figure out what do I want to look like? I want to have a unique look, and I was looking at all the girls that were there. They would wear their hair down. It was beautiful. I want to wear my hair down, I want to feel beautiful and I just loved how all the girls were glamorous. But I wore a braid one time, and my husband, he was like, 'That’s your thing. You have to stick with it.' He's like, 'You have to keep the braid.' I'm like, 'I don't know. I feel like sometimes I feel I look better with the long hair.' He's like, 'But everybody does that. The best way to stand out here is to do something that nobody else is doing. Look at what everybody else is doing, and if that works for them, go the complete opposite way. The first time somebody comes to a show, they might not remember your name for the first time, but they'll remember the girl with the braid.' And I was like, All right, I'm the girl with the braid."
On the hair whip: "Yeah, a lot of people think that production adds a special effect to it, no [there’s no sound effect]. And every time that I do it, it's loud. I thought Sasha was the loudest, and then when I hit Becky, it surprises me. I'm like, Oh, that sounds like that hurt. Sorry. You know, every time it gets louder and louder. [The welt it leaves is crazy]. So that's why I don't do it a lot too. For one, I don't want the audience to get used to it, and two, I don't want to just mark up people."
On how to get the noise: "It’s a special way that I braid it, and I can whip it in the air. This is my appearance one, it’s not braided so it won't make a noise. So when I braid a certain way, if I can hear the way that it goes in the wind, I can tell if it's a hair whip braid. I'm like, Yep, that's it. We're good."
On being in the Elimination Chamber pod when Jade Cargill attacked Naomi: "I just try to pull from just experiences that we had as Tag Team Champions, even with Naomi. Naomi and I, we were always friends before we were in a tag team. But when we got into a tag team, I feel like I just got so much more closer to her, I've learned so much from her inside and outside the ring. So it's like in my heart, that's my best friend. Then me and Jade, we were able to be a tag team, and we're able to be Tag Team Champions, and put the division on the map, and do the things that we wanted to do. And just being in this position, I just try to see it as I'm literally watching my best friend get beat up. Then I just try to just hone into that and like this is awful. You have your two best friends fighting each other, and I'd really just try to, I don't know, just tap into that and just pull the realism out of it."
