WWE apparently isn’t losing any sleep over Nikki Bella and Chelsea Green getting absolutely torched for their SmackDown match. Despite the social media beating and that brutal Cagematch score, the reaction backstage sounds a whole lot more like “moving on” than “what went wrong?”
During a Q&A session, WrestleVotes was asked how WWE reacted to the backlash surrounding Bella vs. Green from the October 30 episode of SmackDown. According to WrestleVotes, the company has already moved past it because WWE isn’t judging the success of performers like Bella purely on whether they’re producing critically acclaimed matches.
“They moved on. What’s the best women’s match we ever saw in WWE? They don’t care about that. The people who buy Nikki Bella’s merchandise do not care if she’s having great matches — similar to Chelsea Green. They do her dances, they like the Instagram. That’s what they’re there for.”
The question came after their WWE Women’s Championship match got absolutely hammered online. At the time of writing, Bella vs. Green was sitting at just 1.15 out of 10 on Cagematch, with reviewers tearing into everything from their chemistry to the crowd reaction and finish.
The match ended after Bella appeared close to winning with the Rack Attack 2.0 before Green survived and eventually caught her with a roll-up. That result also pissed off fans who had spent months watching WWE build Bella toward another championship opportunity, only to see her come up short.
So, none of that outrage is likely to trigger some major backstage rethink. The company apparently sees Bella and Green through a much broader entertainment lens, meaning a terrible Cagematch rating isn’t suddenly going to outweigh the other reasons WWE believes people are interested in them.
Do you think WWE is right not to put much stock into the backlash over Bella vs. Green, or should criticism of the actual wrestling matter more? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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