Nikki Bella responds to Ronda Rousey.
On the Oct. 15 episode of Raw, Rousey dug into Nikki's personal life, bringing up her relationship with John Cena as the reason why she's achieved so much success in WWE. The promo divided fans on social media with some believing Rousey injecting realism into the promo helped build the feud and others believing it was lazy and had no place in today's WWE.
Speaking to The New York Post, Nikki gave her thoughts on Rousey's words.
"I’ve grown thick-skinned to it,” she said. “I just can’t wait for the day it can stop and not every promo towards me brings up my ex and I think it will [stop]. I think there will come a day for that, but maybe there won’t, but I do hope so. I think we are taking some old ways and bringing it into [Evolution]. I definitely hope it changes, and I think it will because I think the women are better than that. I think we can tell empowering stories that have nothing to do with men or how men define us because that’s the point of Evolution."
Bella continued, “We define ourselves as women. We want the equality. We don’t want to be defined by our men or our relationships because almost every woman is in a relationship with another wrestler in our industry. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen it like this, but it’s beautiful. We are such a big family.”
Nikki's relationship with John Cena has been highly publicized over the years as the two have been featured on Total Divas and Total Bellas. At WrestleMania 33, Cena famously proposed to Bella in the middle of the ring following their bout against The Miz and Maryse. The two called off their wedding earlier this year.
Discussing how Cena helped her career, Bella said, “I guess where it doesn’t make me angry or feel bad about myself is I know the hard work that I’ve done to get where I’m at,” Nikki said. “I know the stuff that … John didn’t do what everyone said. He was my biggest supporter. He gave me amazing advice. I’d pick his brain all the time, and that’s what he did for my career, [like] everyone who has that special person in their life.”
Bella is scheduled to headline WWE Evolution against Rousey this Sunday. Fightful will provide live coverage of the event and a post-show podcast.
