Nikki Bella says one of the biggest challenges after returning to WWE wasn’t getting back in the ring—it was figuring out exactly who her character was supposed to be.
Speaking on The Nikki & Brie Show, Nikki reflected on her WWE return and admitted she’s only now starting to feel like the version of herself fans remember from her Team Bella days and historic Divas Championship run.
“I felt like, you know what, I’m starting to really, and you probably have noticed this, I’m finally feeling a lot like me, like who I thrive to be. Like in our Team Bella run, in my longest-running Divas Champion run. And yeah, and it goes, you know, break the fourth wall a little bit to a lot of the women on SmackDown. But I feel like I’m finally just getting in my groove.”
Nikki said her injury earlier htis year unexpectedly gave her time to step back and evaluate how her return had gone. Looking back, she admitted she wasn’t as prepared as she wanted to be when she first came back, and that made rewatching some of her matches difficult.
“The injury gave me finally a moment to really think of, like, I didn’t, you know, when I first came back, I just wasn’t fully prepared, and I didn’t get all the tools to then continue to be prepared. And that was really hard. And I was, like, looking back at my matches like, ‘Oh man.’”
Brie Bella then pointed out that there seemed to be uncertainty over how Nikki should fit into today’s WWE while still staying true to the character fans already knew. Nikki agreed and revealed that her alignment kept changing almost immediately after her return.
“Yeah. And it’s very different. And then, you know, I was going in a short amount of time, babyface, heel, babyface, neutral. And finally now it’s like, no, she’s arrived. This is who she is.”
That led to a funny exchange between the sisters about where Nikki’s character belongs today. Brie laughed that she doesn’t see this version of Nikki as a babyface at all, and Nikki couldn’t have agreed more.
“There’s no babyface about me.”
After bouncing between different alignments so quickly, Nikki now feels like she’s finally settled into a character that feels natural. If she’s right, fans may be seeing the most authentic version of Nikki Bella since the peak of her original WWE run.
Do you prefer Nikki Bella as a heel, a babyface, or somewhere in between? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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