{"id":68294,"date":"2018-10-24T13:54:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T18:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=68294"},"modified":"2018-10-24T13:54:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T18:54:27","slug":"nxt-tracker-bianca-belair-assessing-and-predicting-the-prospects-of-nxt-wrestlers-main-roster-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/10\/24\/nxt-tracker-bianca-belair-assessing-and-predicting-the-prospects-of-nxt-wrestlers-main-roster-future\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT TRACKER &#8211; BIANCA BELAIR: Assessing and predicting the prospects of NXT wrestlers\u2019 main roster future"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1339587637\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome once again to the NXT TRACKER, where I pick an NXT talent, assess their progression to this point and make bold, sure-to-look-hilarious-in-retrospect predictions about their future prospects. Today I\u2019m going to look at one of the most natural superstars to pass through NXT &#8211; Bianca Belair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Talent<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Belair &#8211; born Bianca Crawford &#8211; hasn\u2019t been in the ring as long as many of her contemporaries, but has been an accomplished athlete for years; she ran hurdles in college and later competed in CrossFit (I didn\u2019t know there was such a thing as competitive CrossFit until Bianca\u2019s hype video on NXT a month ago, but I digress). Deciding to become a wrestler was something of a snap decision that has turned out well for Belair so far.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Signature Wins in NXT<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like many \u201cundefeated\u201d wrestlers, Belair (originally Bianca Blair in NXT) lost a lot of matches at house shows before debuting; her one televised loss was in the original Mae Young Classic to eventual winner Kairi Sane and apparently doesn\u2019t count &#8211; I expect this history to be brought up once Belair is in a position to challenge for the championship, however. The build for Belair has been steady, and NXT hasn\u2019t cut her momentum by rushing things or putting her in a position to lose matches. Lacey Evans became an early casualty of Belair on the August 24th, 2017 taping of NXT, and later beat Aliyah, Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo on TV in between house show jobs to NXT Women\u2019s Champion Ember Moon. Belair is now in the thick of her first bona fide ongoing feud with Nikki Cross, and after two inconclusive finishes it\u2019s hard to say whether WWE wants either competitor to lose.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><b><strong>RELATED:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/09\/06\/nxt-tracker-dakota-kai-assessing-and-predicting-the-prospects-of-nxt-wrestlers-main-roster-future\/\">NXT TRACKER \u2013 DAKOTA KAI: Assessing and predicting the prospects of NXT wrestlers\u2019 main roster future<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Live Reactions<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Belair\u2019s charisma has been on point since day one, and in the ring she showed a lot of natural talent as well, and continues to get better with each outing as she moves her way up the card. The difficulty with a character like Belair, as with many in NXT, is that she\u2019s so valued and respected for her work that she gets cheered by a large portion of the audience regardless of the fact that she\u2019s working heel. This is, of course, the best kind of problem to have, and if WWE decides to turn her, it shouldn\u2019t take a lot of effort. I continue to enjoy the reaction whenever she whips her opponent with long hair extension.<\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2153335360\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><b>The Booking<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Belair\u2019s booking has been pitch perfect, as not many important matches have been blazed through with no build, and she\u2019s already a legitimate threat despite very few high-profile wins. She\u2019s done herself a lot of favors on the mic, as her \u201cUn-de-feat-ed\u201d riff seems to work, and she does a great job of sounding frazzled when her opponents frustrate her. It was a little suspect when Belair was left out of the hunt for the #1 contendership recently, but this was explained away through timing &#8211; Belair was said to have lost out on the match because of her honeymoon. I look forward very much to the episodes from the last taping, where Kairi Sane\u2019s next challenger after Shayna Baszler could be named, or at least teased.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Future<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think it would take very real effort to screw up someone like Bianca Belair. A worker can have all the superstar looks in the world but have a hard time regardless due to not having a fraction of the natural ability possessed by Belair. Vince has a certain look in mind for women\u2019s champions that has caused a lot of frustration again in recent years, but as power continues to transition in the future, Belair will more than likely be in a great environment to succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Predictions<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is probably the surest I\u2019ve ever been that the talent I\u2019m covering will, in the future, hold the highest title available to them on the main roster. I could see a slow burn there as we\u2019ve seen in NXT, but I would also welcome a first-appearance championship win to really put her over big and allow her cockiness to shine. While it might make sense for Belair to be the next NXT Women\u2019s Champion, I could also see her fast-tracked north while Sane battles the likes of Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai and Mia Yim instead. Wherever she lands, I\u2019m eager to see the big matches that transpire.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU ARE INVITED TO CHECK OUT THE LATEST &#8220;PWT TALKS NXT&#8221; PODCAST HOSTED BY KELLY WELLS &amp; JUSTIN JAMES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>-Listen to this episode Spreaker: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/user\/10187536\/pwtorch-livecast-pwt-talks-nxt_43\">LINK<\/a><br \/>\n-Subscribe in Apple Podcasts: <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/pro-wrestling-torch-livecast\/id354947346?mt=2\">LINK<\/a><br \/>\n-Or search &#8220;Wade Keller&#8221; on Apple Podcasts<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1845187575\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"spreaker-player\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/user\/10187536\/pwtorch-livecast-pwt-talks-nxt_43\" data-resource=\"episode_id=15995928\" data-theme=\"light\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-playlist=\"false\" data-cover=\"https:\/\/d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net\/images.spreaker.com\/original\/dd45d49e889ab57a79653233c0ea81ce.jpg\" data-width=\"100%\" data-height=\"400px\">Listen to &#8220;PWTorch Livecast &#8211; PWT Talks NXT&#8221; on Spreaker.<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2919394742\"><div id=\"pwtor-1572617787\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Welcome once again to the NXT TRACKER, where I pick an NXT talent, assess their progression to this point and make bold, sure-to-look-hilarious-in-retrospect predictions about their future prospects. Today I\u2019m going to look at one <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/10\/24\/nxt-tracker-bianca-belair-assessing-and-predicting-the-prospects-of-nxt-wrestlers-main-roster-future\/\" title=\"NXT TRACKER &#8211; BIANCA BELAIR: Assessing and predicting the prospects of NXT wrestlers\u2019 main roster future\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,4381,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-nxt-tracker","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/NXTArena_3x2Parry.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68295,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68294\/revisions\/68295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}