Bianca Belair shed her ego as a tag team champ: 'It doesn't always have to be about you for you to be proud'

Belair has spent most of her main roster run as top dog, but new opportunities brought unexpected clarity

Bianca Belair's latest run is a peculiar one. The three-time women's world champion was selected No. 1 overall in the 2024 WWE Draft. Her booking over the following 10 months does not scream leading woman, despite two reigns as WWE women's tag team champion. That could frustrate some superstars in a business rife with big personalities. For Belair, however, taking a break from the world title scene was transformative.

"I've learned that you have to take the ego out of things when it comes to WWE," Belair told CBS Sports ahead of the Elimination Chamber on Saturday. "I learned it's important that the division needs to evolve. It's the whole point of this.

"I know eventually I will go back to the singles picture, but I feel like it was a nice break for me. It doesn't always have to be about you for you to be proud of it. And I'm very proud of the work that I've put in, the work that I've done in this tag team division."

Belair can reinsert herself into the singles title picture in short order. "The EST of WWE" is one of six superstars competing in Saturday's women's Elimination Chamber match. At stake is an opportunity to challenge women's world champion Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 41.

Such opportunities are not foreign to Belair. She won the 2021 Royal Rumble in her rookie year, last eliminating Ripley en route to headlining night one of WrestleMania 37 with Sasha Banks -- the first time two Black superstars headlined WrestleMania. Most superstars work their way up the ladder. Belair was thrown into the deep end from the start.

"I won the Royal Rumble and main evented WrestleMania my very first year. But I was used to being led," Belair said. "My very first WrestleMania, I'm in the ring with a vet like Sasha Banks. Then I'm in the ring with someone like Becky Lynch, Bayley and Asuka. I wanted to soak up and absorb as much as I could from them.

"I remember when I became Raw women's champion, all of a sudden I thought, 'Oh! I'm not in the ring with them anymore. I have to lead.' I got a little bit uncomfortable because I was so used to feeling safe. I felt so safe with them in the ring. Not in the sense of physically, I knew we'd have a great match. I have great chemistry with them and they're leading me. We're good. So the only part I would say I was uncomfortable with was now being in this new role where I'm looked at as the vet, but I still felt like I was learning."

Check out the full interview with Bianca Belair below. 

Belair has enjoyed shedding the pressure of being women's world champion. She can again learn from a more experienced professional wrestler, her tag team partner Naomi. The Triple Crown champion also sees the fruits of her labor building the relatively new women's tag team division instead of living up to the WWE women's title's legacy.

But she shouldn't get comfortable for too long. Many consider Belair a favorite heading into the Elimination Chamber. Her first main roster singles match against Ripley is long overdue, and Belair is quick to remind others that she's undefeated at WrestleMania.