One of the best matches at this year's WrestleMania came when Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, and Iyo Sky went to war for the Women's World Championship. Sky walked out the victor, while Belair ended up breaking her fingers.
It's an injury that typically takes four to six weeks to heal, but three months later, the EST is still unable to commit to an in-ring return (the closest she's come is serving as a special guest referee at the recent Evolution 2 PLE).
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Belair explained that one finger, which fractured at the joint, is the culprit for why she's been unable to wrestle since this past April.
"It looks more like a real finger now," she revealed. "So I have to wear my ring finger on my right hand now because my ring doesn't fit. It's healed, it won't fully straighten. I broke it in two or three different spots. I broke it up here in the middle and then down in the joint."
Asked when the broken finger happened, Belair said, "So it was when we were doing the triple German spot, when IYO was on the top rope, and then it was Rhea, then it was me, and I came in German suplexed both of them off, and my hand got stuck underneath Rhea. Also I went to the wrong side of Rhea, but my hand, I thought she was gonna go further over me, we kind of just collapsed together."
"So when my hand went back, it got stuck under her, and she literally crashed on my hand. I knew immediately it was broken, because usually in a match, something happens, and you don't feel it until after the match, your adrenaline wears off, and you're like, Ow, my finger. But in the moment I thought I broke all my fingers."
"So the ref, you can see the ref if you watch back, the ref comes to me. He's like, 'Are you okay?' I'm like, 'I just broke all of my fingers!' You just see me rolling around on the ground, and it took Rhea to snap me out of the moment, because I was just rolling around on the ground," Belair continued. "And she's like, 'Bianca, Bianca!' And I'm like, 'What?' Oh, we have to finish this match."
As for how she managed to get to the end of the match with Sky and Ripley, Belair added, "Honestly, after she snapped me back into I didn't feel it at all for the rest of the match. I didn't feel it until I got to the back and I was like, Oh, I broke my finger, and I didn't think it was that serious."
It's a real shame to see Belair sidelined indefinitely like this, especially when she was on a real hot streak before the Show of Shows took place.
Hopefully, the former Women's Champion is nearing the end of her extended absence, though it does mean that she'll have to miss this weekend's two-night SummerSlam PLE. You can hear more from Belair in the player below.