Bianca Belair Reveals Advice John Cena Gave Her After Infamous Becky Lynch Squash Match
Bianca Belair saw her SmackDown Women's Championship reign come to a screeching halt last August at the 2021 SummerSlam event. That show saw Belair's match with Sasha Banks get scrapped at the last minute and get replaced by a returning Becky Lynch, who suddenly turned heel and beat Belair in mere seconds to become the new champion. Many fans hated the booking decision at the time and are still lukewarm about the decision, partially because Lynch's heel run hasn't seen the same kind of success she had as "The Man," but also because of how it derailed Belair's momentum as the Women's Divison's next big star.
One person who offered Belair some advice after the match was none other than John Cena, who wrestled Roman Reigns in the show's main event. She described their interaction in an interview with TalkSport's Alex McCarthy this week.
"I really got to talk with John Cena a lot after the 26 seconds moment at SummerSlam. He really just gave me a lot of great advice and keep the right perspective of everything," Belair said. "Basically the gist of what he said was 'moments like this you can really use to propel you. You see how much the fans really get behind you.' For me, out of that, I was able to look at the longer picture, the bigger picture and hopefully one day it'll come back full circle, who knows.
"But for me, I took it as you can use this as an opportunity to show who you are without that title. I'm still the EST of WWE and I'm still going to go out there and show out every single time I step in the ring and you really get to see who's behind you," she added. "Ironically, I think that moment really propelled me and made me a bigger star."
Belair will enter Saturday's Women's Elimination Chamber match last at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. If she wins, she'll get to face the winner of the Raw Women's Championship match (Lynch or Lita) at WrestleMania 38 in April. Check out the full lineup for the show below:
- WWE Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles vs. Riddle vs. Austin Theory (Elimination Chamber)
- WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Goldberg
- Raw Women's Championship: Becky Lynch vs. Lita
- SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The Usos vs. The Viking Raiders
- Bianca Belair vs. Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Nikki A.S.H. vs. Doudrop vs. Alexa Bliss (Elimination Chamber)
- Ronda Rousey & Naomi vs. Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville
- Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss (Falls Count Anywhere)
- The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio
