The reality era of professional wrestling has consistently blurred the lines between what’s happening in a star’s real life against what’s being presented on television. The natural interest in what goes on behind the scenes has led to WWE pulling the curtain back even further in recent years, giving insight into the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of these larger than life athletes.
WWE’s latest splash mixes reality and wrestling through the lens of superstars Bianca Belair and Montez Ford in Hulu’s “Love & WWE: Bianca and Montez.” The series follows Belair and Ford as they navigate their own respective paths through life, while balancing the love they share with their passion for professional wrestling.
The eight-episode series takes fans from last year’s Royal Rumble through WrestleMania 39, following Belair on her path to defend the Raw Women’s Championship, Ford in his aspirations for singles stardom, and the duo as they discuss life milestones like having a baby.
“For my husband and I, we’re blessed to do what we love with the person we love,” Belair tells Uproxx Sports. “We travel together, we work together, we live together. Why not do this reality show and turn this amazing opportunity and provide something fun and positive, showing what we actually go through, how we balance the life of a worker versus being a husband and a wife, and how it can affect sometimes our marriage and how we move in our life outside the ring.”
Throughout the series, fans watch Belair juggle the internal conflict many families face in not sacrificing her career to have a baby, while not wanting to sacrifice having a baby for her career.
“That’s something a lot of women actually go through, so it was a great opportunity to really open myself up and show that process, show those conversations that I have with my husband and my family,” Belair continues. “Everyone definitely drills in my mind that you’ll never be completely ready, you just have to go for it. It is amazing to see so many women in WWE having kids and having it all, and seeing that they don’t have to pick and choose. (They’re) very honest and raw about how it is challenging, but rewarding at the same time.”
The series also follows Ford as he gets a chance to show his abilities as a singles star while at the same time working alongside tag partner Angelo Dawkins on how to be apart of WrestleMania 39.
“Anytime in the WWE, you get a chance to show what you can do, in a different sense of what the WWE Universe already sees you as, you always try to take full advantage of that,” Ford says.
The series takes a pivot from the typical high stress and high drama that comes with reality television to instead show Belair and Ford as they balance life on the road, while finding time for family and friends.
They do everything together, from Ford agreeing to do a fitness competition with Belair all the way down to their shared appreciation for fashion, something Belair and Ford say began with they first started dating.
“One of the things we were most excited about when we met each other was that we both had the same love for fashion. I know for my husband, he grew up in a church, so he was always in suits. My mom was super into fashion. That was something that was instilled in us as kids,” Belair says. “One of the things that we really connected on when we first met was fashion. We love coordinating together, we love matching. He enjoys it just as much as me and it’s something that we have a passion for. We’ve always connected with fashion. We feel like matching is a love language.”
Ultimately, the change-of-pace reality series offers an opportunity for Ford to put positivity out into the world.
“There’s a lot of things happening in the world right now, and we just want to put out some good feelings, some good positive efforts on our show, and show people there’s a lot of things that we attempt to do, and we aren’t necessarily successful all the time, but we continue to try,” Ford says. “Just providing a sense of escape, showing how we manage our situation, and the base of it all is what everything should be, which is LOVE.”
For Belair, more than just pulling the curtain back for wrestling fans, this was yet another opportunity to show the endless possibilities of what they can accomplish.
“My main goal and my why and my purpose is always about representation,” Belair says. “When you see someone that looks like you doing something that you want to do or doing something that you never thought was possible, when it comes to wrestling, when it comes to the cover of video games, when it comes to highlighting our love on a Hulu show, it’s amazing to know that we’re able to be an inspiration in some type of way. We just want to encourage people to go out there, do it your way, go for your dreams. At this point, we’re just trying to do it our way and hoping that people can relate to that.”