Bianca Belair must defeat Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania 37

Bianca Belair must defeat Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania 37.

In the main event of night one of Wrestlemania 37, Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks, will collide for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. For the best possible outcome, WWE must choose establishing Bianca Belair over finally giving Sasha Banks a Wrestlemania win.

This match is already a historic main event, the second ever women’s Wrestlemania main event, and the first with two women of color. But if the match is as excellent as those two are capable of, and the right winner is selected, this match has a chance to permanently become part of WWE’s legend.

For epic moments where a wrestler finally reaches the top at Wrestlemania and establishes themselves as a top star, the lineage goes: Macho Man. Hart. HBK. Undertaker. Austin. Lesnar. Cena. Batista. Orton. Bryan. Kofi. Becky. At Wrestlemania, WWE can add one more name to the end of that list- Belair.

Sasha Banks has been an MVP of WWE’s pandemic era, and is, in my mind, one of the best in-ring performers in the company’s history. She also has dealt with years of suboptimal booking that sabotaged her rise, and remains winless in Wrestlemania.

However, recent months have rehabbed Banks from WWE’s booking mistakes involving her and established her firmly as a top star equivalent to her Four Horsewomen compatriots.

Besides, WWE should prioritize the best decision for the promotion’s future, over compensating for past mistakes and thus making a new one.

WWE has made one right call, by having this match as the main event. Now it needs to make the other right call, by having Bianca Belair defeat Sasha Banks. In this article, we’ll investigate why that’s the best move.

Why Sasha Banks doesn’t need this win

Banks has had some pretty questionable booking in her five-plus years on the main roster. It took until her sixth and current women’s title reign to successfully defend a main roster championship. And she’s never won at Wrestlemania in five attempts.

However, the last year has rehabilitated this past sufficiently, and established her as a top star. She was one of the most valuable wrestlers in anchoring WWE’s pandemic programming, ended her title defense drought and now will main event Wrestlemania. She is undeniably one of WWE’s top stars, and losing Belair v. Banks won’t change that.

Certainly, Sasha going 0-6 at Wrestlemania for her career is not ideal. But there will likely be future matches, and future chances at a win. Even if not, WWE can’t let fear of that statistic inform their decision-making.

The best decision for WWE’s future is that Banks falls short yet again at Wrestlemania- especially since such a defeat won’t dent her legacy after the past year.

Why Bianca Belair needs to win this match

Belair, meanwhile, does need to win Belair v. Banks, in order to firmly establish herself as the face of the women’s division.

Similar to Sasha, Bianca’s initial main-roster booking was disappointing- with her largely being absent from TV before the draft. And similar to Banks, the last few months have seen those booking errors fixed- Belair became a featured wrestler on Smackdown, defeated Bayley in a star-making feud, and won the Royal Rumble.

But unlike Banks, Belair hasn’t fully established herself as a main-eventer yet. To do that, she needs to hold the title at the end of Wrestlemania.

Belair has shown herself as capable of taking the torch from the Four Horsewomen and anchoring a new era of WWE’s women’s division- she only needs the signature victory to close night one of Wrestlemania to do so. WWE must ensure it happens.

Let’s be clear, a Sasha Banks victory isn’t the end of the world, and especially if accompanied by turning heel in order to cheat her way to victory, would open up some very interesting paths in the future.

But any heel turn could also be done by a hungry and desperate Sasha Banks challenging Belair in the future, after Belair caps off the momentum of the last six months with a title victory at Wrestlemania.

The era of the Four Horsewomen isn’t over by any means. But it’s time to establish a new top star in the women’s division- and Belair should be that star.