It appears the tide has settled between Nikki Bella and WWE.
The former WWE Divas Champion appeared in the crowd for WWE Raw‘s Netflix debut. She has had a very public, rocky relationship with WWE the last few years. It began when she openly criticized the lack of representation on Monday Night Raw‘s 30th-anniversary episode.
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Shortly after speaking out, The Bella Twins announced their departure from the sports entertainment giant, noting they no longer felt “energetically aligned” with WWE.
That same year, Nikki hosted Barmageddon on USA Network but was snubbed in an advertisement by WWE on Raw. This disappointed the former two-time Divas Champion who had dedicated over 15 years to the company.
Not long after, Nikki and Brie started teasing a return to wrestling, but it wasn’t in WWE. When Mercedes Mone (formerly Sasha Banks in WWE) debuted for AEW in 2024, Nikki was close to signing a contract.
“I go [to my sister], ‘Brie, I think I can do it for a year. I can do it here to here and go every week,’” Nikki said on the Nikki & Brie Show. “I had a good week of like, ‘This is it. I’m going to call Tony Khan. I’m your girl. I will commit.’ Then, I was like, ‘I can’t do that to my son right now. He needs me.’”
Nikki Bella’s Current Relationship with WWE
“Whether it’s a business family or it’s your actual family, there’s always at some point a rocky road. That’s life and life happens and emotions happen. And so we had that rocky road with WWE,” Nikki said on a new episode of the Nikki & Brie Show.
“As I’ve grown over the past few years and have continued to do the work on myself, I’ve realized times where I’ve made outbursts out of emotions that I probably shouldn’t have done. And then there were times that I could recognize I felt hurt and I wanted to be heard, but that probably wasn’t the right thing to do. And this is why things were rocky.”
Nikki has expressed interest in wrestling AEW stars like Mone, Toni Storm, and Britt Baker. On the flip side, her sister appeared on AEW television in 2024 supporting her husband Bryan Danielson. She even filmed a Close Up episode with Renee Paquette which aired on AEW’s social channels.
Nikki and Brie are two recognizable faces in and out of the ring, so it makes sense for WWE to mend the relationship as best they can. Otherwise, they risk losing a valuable asset to their marketing.
