On her 40th birthday, WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella spoke with NBC Chicago.
One of the questions she was asked concerned her name. Because WWE owns Nikki Bella’s trademark, she is now going by her real name, Nikki Garcia, in all post-WWE projects. Nikki stated that there was some confusion at first when she had to change her name from Bella to her real last name, and that it was difficult to let go of the name, but she wants to make history as Nikki Garcia.
When asked who she would like to see on Barmageddon, she stated that she would like to see Natalya and Tyson Kidd vs. Naomi (Triniti) and Jimmy Uso. She went on to say that “Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair would be very good” and that it would be cool to have “their guys” in there as surprises.
She was asked about being left out of the promo for USA Network’s Barmageddon that Michael Cole read last week. Nikki is the host, but her name was not mentioned in the promo copy; instead, creator Blake Sheldon was mentioned. Nikki expressed her sadness at hearing this.
Nikki said, “It’s sad. There’s obviously a lot of things I could say about that. I think more than anything it’s disappointing. I worked there for 16 years and I helped paved the way for them. Not only that, they’ve always been family to me. Walking away, for me, it wasn’t malicious. I’m at a point in my life and I wanted to do things without hearing the word ‘no’ and it was just strictly business. Maybe there were some personal things that happened over the years that also pushed me toward that but I think more than anything it’s disappointing because I don’t see it happening with the men. For some reason with the women who are outspoken and we’ve seen this with the women in the past, they just want to ban us. I think it’s sad because we all look at it as family and so, okay, they don’t want to say my name. That’s fine but hey Barmageddon got a shout out and so did Blake Shelton, so that makes me happy. So many people at WWE will always be family to me, and I communicate with so many of them. The WWE Universe will always be family to me, as well as my Bella Army. So I’m just so appreciative for all of you and all of us that can still have the memories.”
Nikki stated that she still communicates with people and that they will be her family, as will her “Bella Army.”
You can check out the interview below:
