Hiya!

One of the reasons why I love writing so much is that it helps me to think and delve into the subconscious part of my mind to work on the things that trouble me. The process is called free writing and, while it’s usually meant to help with writer’s block, I just find it fun to do. Try to think of a topic to write about, any topic, and then try to put it into words without thinking of all the cumbersome aspects of writing, such as grammar, spelling and whatnot. I guess this is partially the reason why I hardly get writer’s block: I do a lot of free writing.

But, like I said, I actually use it to work out issues. Even when I was a kid, I used to do it when I still had a diary and journals. It gave me perspective to understand why I was afraid of the dark (I was frightened of things that might come out at me when things got pitch black and my watching my brother play games like Silent Hill didn’t help any). But, this time, I decided to use free writing to analyze something really trivial but does bother me somewhat: Why do I have a strong dislike for Nikki Bella?

Oh, it doesn’t seem like a big problem for anyone. I mean, it should be okay to hate a person’s guts and all that. But what bothers me is why I don’t like Nikki Bella even though she seeming has a lot of fans. I think it’s kind of insane, actually. When I saw her “dramatic” return at last year’s Summerslam after having neck surgery and coming back, she got one of the biggest crowd cheers I’ve ever heard. And yet, all I could do was groan.

I will say, though that, when she started out in the WWE, I was actually a big fan of Nikki Bella. Or, more specifically, The Bella Twins. I really liked the double act they had and I did see that they were capable wrestlers at the time. They weren’t on the level of the bigger names of the time. They definitely weren’t on the same level of the greats like Trish Stratus, Victoria and Lita. But they did well for the level they were in: the mid-card. In short, The Bella Twins were a fun distraction.

But, when the likes of Trish Status, Victoria and Lita retired and the WWE started to focus on the rest of the Divas locker room, it seemed very obvious that the ones that were left behind just weren’t up to keeping up with the previous generation. While Trish Stratus, Lita and even Beth Phoenix pushed the envelope on what women wrestling can be like, none of the other WWE Divas, including The Bella Twins could keep up.

Not all the blame can be put on the Divas at this time. It was like WWE really couldn’t think of anything interesting for the Divas division during this period. But the Divas of this period are not totally blameless. If they weren’t able to pull off anything of note, they would’ve been given more work in the ring, which is what happened to some of the better female wrestlers to come (I’ll get to that later). But The Bella Twins, including Nikki Bella, just didn’t improve a whole lot in the ring and out of the ring.

I’ve always been a big proponent of professional wrestling being more than the matches. A lot of what makes watching the WWE programs is also the antics outside the ring. We can be entertained even without a whole lot of wrestling. Whether it be Mick Foley surprising The Rock with a This Is Your Life segment, Stone Cold giving a victory speech and stating what Austin 3:16 means or even “Dashing” Cody Rhodes teaching everyone how to properly shave, Raw and Smackdown would not be the same if it weren’t for these short vignettes where their wrestling persona’s personality shines through. This takes something called “acting.” And Nikki Bella certainly doesn’t know how to act.

It’s actually really disheartening since Nikki Bella has been with the business of “sports entertainment” for a decade now and she hasn’t improved her acting ability a lick yet. She acts like a rookie trying to get her feet wet and is still in the process of developing her in-ring persona. She can’t act as a babyface and she can’t act as a proper heel because she doesn’t know how to act! Just recently, Nikki Bella gave one of the most cringeworthy promos ever when she was blaming her sister Brie for everything. Hearing her belt out “I wish you died in the womb” with all the emotion of a cat that got her tail stuck in a cabinet door is still so cringey.

Her poor acting also facilitates one of the other reasons why I dislike Nikki Bella: her feuds are usually utter crapfests. The best feuds in the WWE are fueled by emotional context. It’s when massive egos clash against each other and when bad blood really feels like bad blood. It’s not the chase after a title on Raw and Smackdown that makes a feud important and fun (contrary to what the WWE would want you to think of nowadays) but why someone hates another.

With Nikki Bella, I just can’t get invested in any of her feuds because I can’t buy into any of them. Her feud with Carmella was a big “what’s the big deal?” because it was like I was watching a life size cut out of Nikki Bella trying to talk. Her current feud with Natalya has all the heat of a iced tea that was put in a freezer all winter because I can’t believe they actually hate each other. Oh, and it’s also like she doesn’t know how to ad lib. If you’re a babyface and someone attacks you from behind, causing you retaliate and get the upper hand, you don’t yell “get her away from me”. You’re the good guy! You’re supposed to want them to come at you! You want her to come at you so you can beat the living hell out of them! Stupid Nikki.

I would still enjoy seeing Nikki in the ring if she was a good wrestlers but she isn’t. I will give her credit for being a safe wrestler but that doesn’t make her a very exciting wrestler to watch in action. Most of her matches are what I would call “spotty.” The two female wrestlers would do a “spot,” pause a bit to preen and repeat until the match is over. There’s just no flow to it and I bet this is just the way Nikki can wrestle. She can’t keep up with the better in-ring performers like the new batch of Divas like Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Bayley and Becky Lynch. Even Natalya, another wrestler I don’t like all that much because she’s incredibly bland and so unlike her persona when she teamed up with Beth Phoenix, can at least try to move with the younger and fresher women talent in the WWE.

But the thing that really makes me dislike Nikki Bella is something that doesn’t have anything to do with the art of wrestling at all. It’s my perception of her as a human being. I used to watch the earlier seasons of Total Divas. I actually liked the early days of the show when they would show the life of the other women in the WWE and I got to see what happens backstage in a WWE Raw or Smackdown show. But when Total Divas started focusing more on Nikki and Bella, I started to tune out. Why? Because I just didn’t like Nikki Bella as a person.

In the show, Nikki Bella acted like a primadonna, wanting her beau John Cena to make changes to his house, asking the other Divas to support her and generally acting like a bitch. Not the overtly obvious bitch like you would see in Mean Girls or anything like that. Rather, it looked like she really thought highly of herself to the point that she was better than the other Divas. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t it seem like the Bella Twins interacted with the rest of the Total Divas cast less and less throughout Season 3?

I believe Nikki Bella has an honest-to-goodness attitude problem in trying to get the younger talent over, which is why she has to be the top Diva, sorry, women’s wrestler in the WWE. There are rumors circling around that she along with Brie blocked the return of three former WWE female Superstars, namely Maria Kanellis, Kelly Kelly and Maryse, from coming back to the WWE. Maria Kanellis and Maryse pretty much confirmed it themselves but it’s going to be their word against the Bella. But the mere fact that these two women believe that the Bellas are capable of blocking their return does raise some questions regarding Nikki and Brie’s capability of sharing the spotlight with others.

It’s also this primary jealousy which I feel made her eventually become the longest reigning WWE Divas Champion, beating out AJ Lee’s record. Now, I will come out and say I have a personal bias for AJ Lee because I think she’s a phenomenal WWE performer and I was so disappointed to see her leave the company. She did leave her mark in the WWE as AJ Lee, not only because a reason to watch Raw, but the reason to watch the show!

Her ability to connect with her in-ring character made her feel like a real person and, even though a lot of it dealt with her being crazy, it just worked! She had so many memorable moments, from her run as the longest WWE Divas champ, to becoming the focal point of a dizzying love triangle between Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and, of all people, the demon Kane and she even became the Raw General Manager. And fans ate it up!

I really think that Nikki Bella wants to show up AJ Lee and bury the crazy chick’s accomplishments to the point that she was more than okay to beat her record. Oh, and the way she did was less than “fearless.” A good majority of that title run was during what I call the “Divas Devolution.” During the Divas Devolution, all the female wrestlers were put into different factions and feuded with each other… without the Divas title being put up on the line! If she doesn’t defend the belt, of course she was going to beat AJ Lee’s record. The WWE tried to make it a big deal by making the last month or so before beating the record a race to see if she could retain. But it was very obvious that the WWE wanted to remove AJ Lee as the record holder because she probably left the company on bad terms.

I do get why she has a lot of fans, though. She does look beautiful but it’s just not a kind of beautiful that I find attractive. She looks like a big breasted floozy who needed the implants to get ahead in her career and tries to intentionally give adolescent males a boner when she comes to the ring with… honestly, I don’t know what to call what she wears. Are those tights? But it’s purely a superficial kind of pretty with nothing deep. Which to me is one of the worst kinds of pretty.

Is it right for me to hate on Nikki Bella? Well, I don’t know her personally but I think it’s fine. I don’t really think she’s a good person and I hardly see any proof that tells me otherwise. She comes off as a superficial person who thinks she deserves to be rewarded with her current position because she’s managed to milk her success on her looks and her connections and not because of any talent. I guess that how I really feel about Nikki Bella. I’m open to see if there is proof that she’s actually a good person. But, in my last ten years of seeing her in the WWE, I don’t really see her becoming a better person. Actually, it’s been the opposite.

Byee!

What’s your take on Nikki Bella? Let me know in the comment section below!