WWE Hall of Famer Brie Garcia (Brie Bella) appeared on Redefined with Leslie and Arielle to talk about a number of topics, including the importance of Total Divas in women’s wrestling and how she thrived in a male-dominated industry.
Bella said, “I was able to take a step back and say, okay, this is a job, but the one thing I noticed quickly is that even though this is a job, what could we do to change? My sister and I, coming from athletics, and being these soccer players and being able to keep up with the boys. As athletes, because we’re always intermingling with the guys, we all get smart allecy with each other and get that thick skin. We already had that mentality going in. My feelings wouldn’t get hurt if people said dumb comments. I always was able to kind of see through people. My sister and I were like, ‘Obviously, this is what they want from women, but we can change that. We do have voices.’ We heard no, a lot, until we finally heard yes. To this day, I will always thank ‘Total Divas’ for becoming such a hit show because it did open up the door for women’s wrestling. Women were already doing incredible things at that time, but it opened it up in a way that allowed more spots for women. It allowed us to be showcased, because really the men only were, and it gave us different opportunities that we were all really begging for. It was hard. I’m not going to say it was easy, because it wasn’t. There were a lot of times I went back to my hotel room and cried and thought, ‘Do I want to be part of this? Is this what I want?’ I’m also very competitive and I knew, ‘Yeah, they’re not going to win.’ It would fire me up in a way and I’d go back and I knew how to stand up for myself. Having a twin (helped). Nothing I would want my daughter to go through.”
You can check out Bella’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
