We've known for a while now that Bianca Belair has been dealing with. ahand injury of some sort. That was sustained all the way back at WrestleMania 41 in April 2025, meaning the EST has been on the shelf for a better part of a year.
She's only made a handful of appearances during that time, including serving as a guest referee for Jade Cargill's match with Naomi at last year's Evolution PLE. The hope had been that Belair would be back in time for the Royal Rumble, but even WrestleMania 42 could now be off the table.
Belair has taken to social media to confirm that she's about to undergo finger surgery. Her initial recovery time was 8 to 12 weeks, and that's somehow stretched into 10 months. However, we learned back in December that a procedure of some sort was required.
"So I broke my knuckle, not my finger, I broke my knuckle, I broke the joint," the former Women's Champion previously explained. "It’s something that I thought was going to be a very straightforward, you know, 8-12 weeks. It’s been almost six months at this point."
"I was in a triple threat with Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky. And we were going to the top rope, because that’s what we do, and we came off the top rope, and Rhea landed straight on my hand, and it just crushed everything in my finger," Belair continued. "So it’s been a crazy journey."
"You know, being an athlete and having an injury, you rely on your body, and now my body’s not doing what it’s supposed to do. But I’m hoping that I can be back in the ring soon," she concluded.
Belair signed with WWE in 2016 and was initially assigned to the NXT brand. She debuted in September of that year and competed in the 2017 Mae Young Classic, advancing to the second round. Belair challenged for the NXT Women's Championship multiple times but never won the title.
Her main roster debut was at WrestleMania 36 in April 2020, aligning with The Street Profits on RAW before being drafted to SmackDown later that year. She won the women's Royal Rumble match in 2021 after entering at No. 3 and lasting over 56 minutes. At WrestleMania 37, Belair defeated Sasha Banks in the main event to capture the SmackDown Women's Championship, holding it for 133 days.
In 2022, she won the RAW Women's Championship at WrestleMania 38 by defeating Becky Lynch and held the title for a record 420 days—the longest reign in the title's history—until losing it to Asuka at Night of Champions 2023. Belair later won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship twice with Jade Cargill, and won the women's Elimination Chamber match in 2022 and 2025.
Stay tuned for updates on Belair's condition as we have them.