tryout, but emphasized she had to do the work. After two official tryouts, Blair signed a contract with WWE on April 12, 2016, and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Blair made her first appearance during an in–ring segment at an NXT live event on June 25 as "Binky Blair", where she proclaimed to be the "EST of NXT... prettiest, baddest, strongest." She made her in–ring debut on September 29, losing to Aliyah. On the May 3, 2017, episode of NXT, Blair made her television debut under the ring name Bianca Belair, taking part in a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Women's Championship, but was eliminated by Billie Kay and Peyton Royce. Belair participated in the Mae Young Classic, defeating Sage Beckett in the first round, but was eliminated in the second round by the eventual tournament winner Kairi Sane. In January 2018, Belair began an undefeated streak by defeating various competitors including Lacey Evans, Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo. On April 8, Belair made her WrestleMania debut by participating in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34, but was eliminated by Becky Lynch. On January 26, 2019, at TakeOver: Phoenix, Belair unsuccessfully challenged Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship after interference from Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, ending her undefeated streak at 367 days. At TakeOver: New York on April 5, Belair failed to win the title as she was submitted by Baszler in a fatal four-way match also involving Kairi Sane and Io Shirai. On the May 29 episode of NXT, Belair suffered her first pinfall loss in NXT to Mia Yim. A triple threat match between Belair, Yim, and Shirai to determine the #1 contender for the NXT Women's Championship was announced on the September 4 episode of NXT. LeRae was added the next week to make it a fatal 4-way match. The match would be the first match on the debut episode of NXT on the USA Network, which LeRae won. On the October 23 episode of NXT, Belair lost to Rhea Ripley despite outside interference from Shirai and LeRae. At WarGames on November 23, Belair and Team Baszler (NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai, and NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray) lost to Team Ripley (Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Tegan Nox) in the first ever women's