WWE Hall of Famers Nikki and Brie Bella were recent guests on the Pretty Big Deal podcast with host Ashley Graham to discuss all things wrestling, including how the backstage atmosphere has changed and whether or not they would be interested in running creative for the women’s division. Highlights are below.
On wanting to be involved with the creative for the WWE women’s division:
NIKKI: I mean, I would love — there’s times that — because Brie’s husband [Daniel Bryan] is a part of the creative team and works a lot with Vince McMahon on creative stuff and I’ve always thought in the back of my head like, ‘I would really like to do that for the women’ because I’ve lived it as a WWE superstar but also, I’m a fan. So it’s like, I feel like I know what the people want and then I know how to get the best out of each woman because I know them. So, it would be a lot of fun to be on creative.
What they think of Sasha Banks, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, and Alexa Bliss:
NIKKI: I’ve always called it about Sasha Banks since the day she debuted and even right before she debuted. She’s just, to me, has it all of what you look at as a WWE superstar. She’s an incredible wrestler, she’s an entertaining superstar. It’s like the minute she hits that ramp and comes through the curtain it’s like, you’re just locked in on her. You’re just like, ‘Woah.’ Bianca Blair [Belair], she’s beautiful, she is fun to watch and she is the most athletic human being I’ve ever seen in my life. What she can do — she’s another one. She’s a showstopper. You just stop and you’re like, ‘Oh wow.’
BRIE: Same with Rhea Ripley. I’m actually bummed she’s not on the main roster yet, because she constantly puts out great matches, her look is incredible, her presence going to the ring and she’s still at NXT which is great for NXT but I’m like, ‘She should’ve been on the main roster years ago.’ Especially her storyline with Charlotte [Flair]. I was like that’s someone who should be headlining Monday Night RAW.
NIKKI: And I feel like Alexa Bliss has so much range.
BRIE: And Liv Morgan too. Liv Morgan still needs a big.
On how the culture backstage has changed:
BRIE: I feel like now it’s so different. It always blew me away when we started. It almost made me look at the problem here in WWE is women don’t want to support women. Women wanna pull each other down, they don’t want to help each other, where I was looking at the men and even the men would deal with some hazing, men were still helping each other. Like they wanted to put on a great match whereas you would go out there with some women and they literally would purposely make you wanna look bad, and make the match sh*t, just because they didn’t like you and I was like so here’s the issue: When women can actually connect and help each other, then you make history. It was really hard at first because Nicole and I had so much hate for no reason, and I think what Nicole and I did is when we became veterans, instead of being mean to the girls coming in, we wanted to help them. We wanted them to feel at home, we wanted them to feel safe… the night we debuted, we didn’t even get — we were allowed to get dressed in the women’s locker room. We just weren’t accepted. So we changed in a bathroom and then they said we couldn’t wear the wrestling clothes that we had made which we barely had any money at the time. They’re like, ‘You can’t wear that on TV’ and you know, girls we’re saying that.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)
