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Bianca Belair Made History At WWE Backlash

By John Canton • Published 7th May 2023
bianca belair raw womens title backlash

Bianca Belair made history at WWE Backlash due to the length of her reign as the Raw Women’s Champion.

The 2023 edition of WWE Backlash took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico with Bianca Belair facing IYO SKY in a scintillating opening match that drew some strong reactions from the crowd.

Even though Bianca Belair has been pushed as a babyface wrestler that is an inspiration to women all over the world, the fans were booing her during the match while SKY, the heel in the match, was cheered heavily.

Throughout the match, it was evident that the fans wanted SKY to win, but she came up short even though her Damage CTRL allies Bayley & Dakota Kai did all that they could do to help SKY win. Belair was able to kick out of everything that SKY threw at her and Belair won clean with the KOD slam.

After her victory at Backlash, Belair mentioned that with her win she tied Becky Lynch with the longest women’s title reign of the modern arena. That means today (Sunday) is day 399, so she has passed Lynch’s 398-day mark.

“Tonight, I faced one of the best of the best @Iyo_SkyWWE!!! Whew! Tonight, I tied @BeckyLynchWWE’s record for longest title reign… 398 DAYS! And Tomorrow, I will become the longest Reigning Women’s Champion of the modern era!”

That 398-day number for Lynch was when she was the Raw Women’s Champion from WrestleMania 35 in 2019 until she gave it up in April 2020 due to being pregnant, so Lynch’s reign ended without being beaten.

It is worth pointing out that Trish Stratus had a 445-day Women’s Title reign from 2005 until WrestleMania 22 in 2006, so that would count as “modern” since it’s in the 2000s decade, but in this instance, WWE likely wants to focus on this era of superstars.

As for the future, Bianca Belair was drafted to Smackdown while the Smackdown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley was drafted to Raw. When WWE did that sort of thing with the WWE Draft in the past, the champions did a title swap, so that could be what happens here. If that happens then WWE will start Belair’s Smackdown Women’s Title reign at zero days rather than continue this current reign. That’s to be determined and it’s up to how WWE wants to handle it.