Original subtitles

The one thing my sisters always did is they loved to challenge.

They walked into a man's world and basically gave all the men the middle

that they were here.

You better make sure you do it better than a man. I was like, oh, that's all

had to say to me.

Twins are strange.

Trouble may come looking for Bree.

Nikki goes looking for trouble.

I found them to be the greatest athletes, performers, well -rounded,

working, most compassionate.

who had to command an audience of 30 ,000 people.

What happened to Bella Twins, a Hall of Famer? Brie Bella in full -blown Brie

mode. Brie is a knife. She is a sharpened blade.

Nikki is not afraid of conflict. She shows it in

her work. She shows it in the way she loves.

She shows it in the way she dances.

She shows it in everything.

Two of the most famous WWE superstars in history.

Bree is the new Divas champion.

The gloves were off. There was no turning back.

Nikki Bella is the longest reigning Divas champion in history.

We've been a tag team since the womb.

Who doesn't want to be a Bella?

Every time you turn around, I would say something online about them.

It's the Bellas. Do you know the Bellas? Of course.

This is bigger than I think we all could have ever imagined.

Reality TV stars Brie and Nikki Bella.

Nearly 35 million followers across their social media platforms.

Muscle and fitness covers. From your show, to your podcast, to your beauty

to your sportswear line, to your wine line, to your YouTube channel.

We are part of WWE history.

You know, home life wasn't easy growing up.

My parents were forced to be parents at 19 years old. It was kids raising kids.

Their father and I came from two different worlds, and those worlds

My dad was a pistol. I always felt like I was walking on eggshells. And my dad

was a drug user, and he would get angry at a drop of a hat, and he would black

out, and...

That was really hard to live with.

There was a lot of partying and anger and discipline was above

what discipline should be.

Bree and I were raised that when there's conflict, you settle it in an

aggressive way.

We were taught to fight at a very young age.

We were told that, no, we yell at each other because that's how we love each

other.

It was wild.

It was a wild upbringing.

Everything was just more amplified.

We sort of almost had training, in a way, of standing up to people who either

lose their fuse or are scary or try to intimidate you. We sort of knew how to

handle that situation because of our household situation with my father.

But I have to say, I had a lot of happy moments.

My parents were both athletes growing up.

And they were obsessed with us kids being athletes. And I think the one

too, is at a young age, my parents noticed that all three of us kids had

natural athletic ability.

So they figured we got to push them that way.

Soccer came into my life at the perfect time.

I was in fourth grade, and soccer brought a lot of structure that I didn't

at home.

I really loved that feeling of having all these parents around, having this

coach who was like a father, having these other sisters around that I could

to or I could come to or laugh with. I needed their strength to get through

I was going through behind closed doors at my home.

One thing that my sister and I learned with our soccer team is being a team

player, pretty much having a tag partner.

There's 11 of us on the field. And if you're in business for yourself, you are

going to lose the game for your team.

It really taught us that we don't have to fight with other women for a spot.

Instead, you can find unity and make magic happen for so many women.

Sophomore through senior year was actually very tough.

But 15 is when my world really started to fall apart.

And I just, like, lost myself.

I wanted to rebel because I didn't understand what I was going through

and emotionally.

At that age, I hadn't done anything sexually, like at all.

I mean, I kissed a boy.

So the first time that I was raised in high school, everything was

new and was taken from me. Like my virginity was taken from me. My

taken from me.

And the worst part was, like, I blamed myself.

I blamed myself for going to a Fourth of July party and then having drinks and

passing out. And you think you can always, like, get past

it, but you can't. It's hard.

And I think the one regret I have and the one thing I want people to learn is,

like, you have to, like, talk to people.

I don't want to tell anyone.

Except my sister.

I took the shame with that. And I locked it away. And that changed who I was.

That next day, I changed.

I had no idea.

She was good at making me think everything was okay. So it was hard to

find out years later that she had been sexually assaulted. Not once, but twice.

Two years later.

I get into another bad situation that didn't feel right.

And I still went.

And next thing you know, being drugged and hit in the head and

raped. And it was like after those two situations,

I just was done.

And instead of lifting myself up, I just went into a deep depression for a few

years. And then it took finally one day where I just knew I wanted to survive

that all. I think it took just looking at myself in the mirror one day and just

being like, you're better than this.

Like, let's start to build ourself up.

Let's survive.

I'll never forget this Christmas.

My dad was going on a soul -searching trip.

And shortly after he left, my mom got a phone call that my dad was on his way to

go on a cruise with this woman, the team mom of my brother's baseball team. And

my mom was devastated.

And I just remember thinking, like, she deserves so much better.

And I'm not going to let her be in this situation anymore.

My dad and I get into a massive fight that turns physical, and I literally

walked out of the house. I might have been barefooted. I had nothing.

And Bree and I walked out that front door, and I didn't even look back.

I was on the run for a week, and I actually talked to my school principal

before I went home because I was refusing to go home, and I just said I

go home if my dad's there.

Now, I'll tell you one thing. My dad has one of the biggest hearts ever, but he

just would lose his fuse pretty quick.

It was a building moment, I think, for Nicole to really put her foot down, not

just like, hey, listen, I know you're my parents, but I'm not coming back until

that house is safe or that she felt it was safe.

So the cops had to get involved, and my dad was thrown out of my house.

It was very awkward for my mom in the beginning because I pretty much, in the

end, forced the decision on her.

I needed him to be gone.

When finally my parents figured out that they couldn't be together, they had to

get a divorce.

and all of a sudden our house became happier, I started to be like, well,

makes me happy? Because it's not soccer.

Like, I loved soccer, but I also loved the art, the painting, music, and drama.

I just felt like my life is changing now. I'm 16.

I'm driving. I'm feeling a little more free. Like, I want to start living for

then. And I started to.

So I slowly started to pull out of soccer.

And then I meet Bear, and I fall in love.

He was this just really vibrant artist.

I'd go to Bear's house, and he'd be writing music, and he'd be painting, and

would paint me a lot. And I was just like, am I, like, in a movie?

Bear brought to me everything I loved, which was the art, music, and he became

my everyday everything.

I finally felt purpose, and I finally felt this sense of direction where I

wanted my life to go.

Soccer was my life.

Eleven years, I played competitive ball, and I loved what I did. There was

something about being on that field and being a badass.

There was so much on me, but I loved it. I thrived on it.

And I had the dreams of being on the Women's World Cup team.

Mia Hamm, Carla Overbeck, Brandi Chastain, all those women were who I

to growing up.

I'm about to sign with Arizona State University, and I have all these other

offers from all over the country.

I'm going to have a spot on the Arizona Heat Wave, play in the Women's

Professional League.

I'm making my way up to see that dream of being on the World Cup team one day.

That's how I see it, right?

Third place game for my high school team.

Striker gets breakaway.

I go to slide tackle her, take the shot. We hit innocent.

And mine snaps right in half.

And the break was just so bad. It was like, sorry, we don't know how you're

going to heal.

Scholarships are off the table. We couldn't afford college.

Everything that I worked for for 11 years straight, what was going to get me

of Arizona, out of my home, just... all gone and

it was just like everything crumbled

january of my senior year

my boyfriend bear was picking up a friend and they were on their way to my

and i was talking to him on the phone excited to see him and 45 minutes later

get a phone call that bear is dead he was killed by a drunk driver

And in that moment, my life had changed forever.

When that love was taken away, I

just was on such a high in my life. And I went to the lowest low.

And even more so than I dealt with my dad because the stuff I

dealt with my dad, well, we...

We made up. We could, like, deal. And it's like, I'm still breathing. But,

to lose someone who means so much to you and know you'll never, ever talk to

them again, that, that was hard to swallow.

And that was hard for me to think, like, how do I get out of this?

And that's when I knew I had to go.

I had to get out of Arizona.

But at that time, my sister and I knew we needed each other.

One night, this was like not even a week after Bear died, I was bawling my eyes

out. In her like cast, she crawled over to me and cuddled me.

And she's like, let's just get out of here. That's all we wanted. We were

let's go.

And we did.

We were out.

We get to graduation day.

Brie and I literally, I think it's the next day, pack up our car and we're

we're moving to San Diego.

And, of course, when we get there, we're like, okay, well, we need full -time

work. So my sister and I were like, where could we make really good money at

years old?

And we're like, Hooters!

When Brie and I first walked into Hooters, I was like, oh, gosh, Brie,

are we going to tell the family? Like, are we sure about this? I don't know

about those outfits.

Then when we, like, heard they got more than minimum wage, they could walk out

with $100 cash tips at night, we were like, okay, we have to do this.

You know, it takes a lot to be a waitress and to walk up to strangers,

especially in a Hooters atmosphere, and demand attention, demand respect.

And we were taught that.

Feminine energy is the most powerful energy you can ever use.

Ever, ever, ever.

Sometimes women are taught to hide our feminine energy.

We were taught not to use our voices, let everyone else talk, be polite.

Hooters taught me not to be polite, to actually speak up.

It really started to blossom me into this young woman.

I never thought in my life.

That when I was working at Hooters for two and a half years, that those

pantyhose would come back and haunt me because those were the same pantyhose

that I wore for over 10 years in the wrestling ring.

We started to be like, okay, everyone at home keeps asking, so what are you

doing with your life?

And we can't just keep saying, you know, figuring it out.

And I know Nicole really wanted to get back into soccer.

And I had the head coach of Grossmont College soccer team call me and be like,

look, I know what you've done in your career, and if your shin's great, come

play for us.

And I was like, you know what, I'm going to go back and still see if I got it.

And then I got back on that soccer field, and we made magic happen. We had

incredible season.

We were champions.

I had my head coach call me saying, like, Italy's starting to thrive. You're

half Italian.

Why don't you go play pro ball in Italy?

And I was like, you know what? This is, like, what I need. Like, this is the

change I need.

And for myself, I really didn't know. I was kind of waiting for a sign. I was

waiting for something.

And that's when I saw it.

It's fast. A quarter of a million dollars. WWE Divas. Head to WWE .com for

the details.

And I thought to myself, who?

Wrestling. Well.

I feel like I've wrestled my sister my whole life. I know about fighting.

And if it's dealing with athletics, all I've ever been told my whole life is

that I have a natural athletic ability.

But at the same time, this is entertainment.

It clicked.

I actually went to the audition first by myself.

Tell me your name, please.

It's Brianna Cohen.

Brianna. And Brianna, you have an identical twin. I do. We're actually

the Garcia twins.

I was like, oh, this is perfect. I'm totally getting it. But they're like,

actually really isn't the audition. This is just an interview. If we want you to

go to the audition, I'm like, oh, okay.

They're like, but please bring your twin.

So begged my sister, begged her. And she goes, hey, look, before you make the

decision to go to Italy to play pro soccer, come check this out with me. We

up, you hate it, you know, this wasn't meant to be. I'm like, or we show up and

we're like, this is for us. And I was like, hmm.

I'm watching Monday Night Raw. I'm seeing the little pig butt.

I'm like, I really like this. It's like being athletic and showcasing your

athletic ability and competing and being a champion.

So it's like, you know what? I'll listen to Brie. I'll give it a chance.

When we showed up to Diva Search, Brie had steered me very much in the wrong

direction. She told me we were going there to fight.

that look like a line of go -go dancers.

Everyone was in sparkly bras, and I was dressed, like, in jeans and a tank top.

I don't even know if I had makeup on.

She's calling around trying to get some wrestling ideas.

She's on the phone with The Rock.

We were still so off. That's okay. Even when I look at us in our swimsuits. And

I love it because it's Brie night.

No, we both did the same thing. The twin thing. Even when you see us in the

swimsuit competition part, Brie and I don't really have a lot of makeup on and

we have our hair thrown up. Like, girls were in full glam as if they were trying

out for Miss USA.

Not Brie and I. You put two tomboys into swimsuits and that's what you got.

But that's what made us realize very quickly that we're very drawn to the

wrestling side of WWE and we wanted to become that.

Because, you know, when you walk into a ring, you have everyone cheering. You

can't help but go, yeah!

And here you walk in and you can just tell they're ready just to, like, pick

apart. It was an awful experience.

Say if I was your boyfriend and I slept with your sister while I was dating you,

what would you say to me?

Oh, I don't even think I'd say words. I'd knock you out.

That was the same answer your sister said. Oh, really?

Thank you so much, Brianna. You're welcome.

We got told we don't have boobs.

I mean, you name it.

Why do you have bear claws?

Well, it's a sad story.

I don't want to bring people down.

But I got it for a boyfriend who passed away.

So his name was Bear. Yeah, high school sweetheart.

We walked out of there. My sister looked at me like, I hate you.

And then this woman, her name is Kristen Prouty. She pulled my sister and I

aside. She was really sincere.

I knew and saw. And we all did. They checked every box.

Charisma, athleticism, confidence.

They'd pop.

And so, yeah, I pulled Bree and Nicole aside and told them, please, like, if

really want to wrestle, can I talk to you? Because we'd love to fly you out to

our developmental program in the Deep South and get you guys in the ring, and

let's really see, like, if there's a good fit.

And the next thing you know, we were flying down to McDonough, Georgia, the

Dirty South, and then we had to make our way to the training facility.

Like, I was expecting to see, like, this gorgeous, big, elaborate developmental

program.

And it was not that. And I'm like, oh, oh, oh, okay.

It was grungy.

They don't want you to be impressed.

They're like, come here, and you impress us.

And I just remember, like, fellas, get in there.

Let's see how you can do bumping.

Bill DeMott was like, you know what a back bump is? And I'm like, no. And he

just went, boom.

And I just remember hitting the mat, like.

That was so cool. I love this. We watched a show and I remember just

of them nervous backstage, like figuring everything out and seeing them come out

with their characters.

And Nicole and I were just like, whoa, like this is like awesome.

That was our first taste of just hearing a crowd react.

Booing and cheering and chanting.

And I remember going back to our hotel room that night.

Brie and I start wrestling around. Like, we look like five -year -olds. Like,

after you watch wrestling or you want to be your superhero. That was Brie and I

at 22 years old. In a hotel room, broke a TV, broke a drawer, and then we're

laying on bags of ice.

I mean, we just laid on the bed in so much pain, but with the biggest smiles

our faces.

Like, her and I looked at each other and we're like, oh, yeah, this is for us.

And that was it.

Like, we knew in our hearts, like, we were made.

to be professional wrestlers.

After Deep South, they reached out to my sister and I, and they're like, let's

talk about a contract. We'd love to sign you two. And we will pay you weekly to

learn how to wrestle, but you need to move to Tampa.

And I just remember being like, oh, this is real.

But yes, we decided that we're going to be the Bellagio.

It was like a cheeky little nod to our grandfather, who was a school -blooded

Italian. And that was it. We decided to become WWE superstars.

We drive into Tampa, Florida, and we're like, palm trees and water and

everything. I'm like, okay, Florida's pretty cool.

My mom was terrified. I just want everyone to know. She thought alligators

literally, like, walk the streets like cats.

FCW was a developmental program for the WWE, and the head trainer was Dr.

Tom Pritchard.

Dr. Tom is like, we're teaching you alaka, how to take an arm, chokehold,

lock, and we'd start to learn wrestling.

It was so exciting that my sister and I asked, can we do night school?

He's like, you guys are with us eight hours a day.

We're like, yeah, we'll go get dinner, and then we'll come back.

So we started to do night school with Dr. Tom, and he's like, let's think of

your entrance.

How do you guys want to come out?

What is it you want to do?

That's how we came up with the Bella booty shake and the backflip.

And so it was like during the day, hardcore wrestling moves, and at night

like the fun stuff.

From the men and

women, we got a lot of hate.

What are they, just models? Oh, they came through divas search? They're not

athletic. They're not wrestling fans. They don't belong here. I even remember

some of the other women were teaching us moves wrong.

Like, when someone told me, like, back elbow, I didn't know it meant block it,

too. And I would eat it. I literally would eat people's forearms and back

because I thought I had to.

Maybe I should have been in UFC.

People were trying to make us so miserable, so we quit. But those women

realize that they were giving us more fire to succeed.

I was like, if this is how it is to earn respect, fine.

I'm going to make people respect us.

But two girls, I didn't have to earn their respect. They were just so great

the beginning.

Natalia Neidhart and Chrissy Bane.

Chrissy and Natty were amazing mentors.

Natalia Neidhart, the third generation diva, daughter of Jim the Anvil

a diva with a dangerous DNA.

I was brand new as well. And of course, being brand new to WWE, I was scared of

my own shadow.

So I was just happy to have somebody else that was like also being judged as

well so that I wasn't the only one being judged.

We kind of had like a mutual unspoken agreement that they were going to teach

everything they knew about presentation, about my costumes, my promos, my whole

total package.

They helped me fake it until I could make it. And I was going to teach them

everything I knew about pro wrestling because I had grown up around it my

life. From Greensboro, North Carolina, Chrissy Payne.

And Chrissy was also amazing because Chrissy came from the independents. She

a massive star there.

They taught us about wrestling etiquette, the important things as a

And they started teaching Nicole and I moves and the psychology of wrestling

matches. Every day we are learning all of this.

We all were trying to prep to be superstars on TV.

But Bree and I, deep down, we wanted to be the best.

Even in our very early years at FCW, you're a sitting duck in developmental.

It's sink or swim.

Either you rise to the top and you break through and make it to the main roster,

like Raw or SmackDown, or you don't make it and you get fired. And that's it.

Those are your dreams. They're done.

So we were all really excited because WWE used to have their own magazine, and

they were doing a feature on FCW, and it just came out.

So Jack Swagger was sitting up on the apron, and he and I both were reading

article like, oh my gosh, we're finally in a magazine. We were all so pumped.

And then Sweet Puppy Chulo is in the ring.

He's 200 -something pounds.

So Sweet Papi Trullo hits Jack Swagger as hard as he can, which causes, by

accident, Jack Swagger to headbutt me.

Sure enough, I had a shattered nose.

And then, of course, Murphy's Law.

They were going to debut Nikki and I from SmackDown.

And I'm like, are you kidding me? I just shattered my nose. I have black and

purple eyes. Like, okay, fine. I'm not going to tell him. This is what we

trained for in our last 14 months of in -ring work.

I just was like, you mess up this, like one time you go out, that's it. You go

back there on a real mental and you probably get fired.

When they told me my first match was against Victoria, a well -respected

that the crowd loves.

who's an amazing wrestler, I'm like, is this good for me or not?

When Nikki and I started with WWE and we showed up to Pittsburgh, Nikki and I

were walking into the arena.

I was very nervous to go to TV. I just had a lot of pressure.

We were entering a whole new group of women and dealing with TV time and

It was almost like when you graduate middle school, now you're entering high

school. This is where we were at.

We had a big roster of women then, but they were all underutilized. None of

were given the storylines that the men were given. None of them were given a

compelling storyline at all.

You look at television, and there's probably 10 different segments, maybe

but there's only one for women, and that's a lot of women fighting for a

Which resulted maybe in not the healthiest of locker room environments.

It was less about supporting one another and more about getting one over on each

other, which is not necessarily unusual in a competitive environment, but

certainly wasn't the most familial.

You know, Brie and I show up and they're like, let's go with Brie because she

doesn't have the messed up face.

Nikki, let's try to get as much makeup on as we can on you.

And then it's like, no, you can't be in our locker room.

I understood it.

If you want us to change in the bathroom before we debut on live television on

SmackDown, sure.

Okay. And then we put on our outfits and then we were told, oh, it looks like

your pants look like bell bottoms. And some other girl wears bell bottoms.

like, oh my gosh.

Oh, black and red. Well, someone else wears black and red. You guys can't wear

that. And Nicole and I just looked at each other and we were like, we're

supposed to debut tonight. And like, what are we going to do?

The seamstress at WWE, they were amazing.

They were like, we'll help you. What do you have in your bag?

And we're like, well, we have a bikini, swimsuit, some BB workout pants, and

they literally cut our swimsuit. They sewed them onto our workout pants that

actually worked out in that day. And we made our wrestling gear for the night.

I ain't the lady to mess with.

Her music hit, crowd goes nuts.

My music hit.

And the crowd is dead quiet.

Like, you could hear a pin drop. And I walk out with this big smile on my face.

And my teeth are, like, chattering. Like, everything. I'm nervous. I'm

I want to vomit.

I just was like, here we go.

But I will say this.

Victoria took care of me out there when it came to the wrestling.

And then it was time to do a twin switch.

The twin switch, it's something that only happened in singles matches with

twins. For example, if Nicole gets chucked out of the ring and the ref

see it, Brie would come up and get back in the ring and pretend she was Nicole.

Essentially, it was cheating.

I knew that it all depended on my timing and how I came out for them to buy it.

And if they didn't buy it, there was going to be no Bella Twins.

You get one chance.

We do the twin switch.

We beat Victoria. The crowd was so upset.

We're like...

That actually worked.

Celebrate on the ramp and I'm doing all the cute stuff, but you can see where so

much makeup is covering up my broken nose. So that's how we debuted.

So we were able to get away with doing twin switches for three

months.

And then finally Vince is like, okay, we need to reveal the twins.

We need to make it where it almost looks impossible.

Like, Victoria has the girl's arm, Natalia has the girl's leg, and all of a

sudden she looks really, really long.

It was kind of like, wait a minute.

What's happening here? And ultimately, they each pulled out a twin.

And it was the beginning of a very long legacy

of the Bella twins.

Nikki and I knew in that moment that being the first ever twin girls to debut

WWE, that was something special.

And you know what the crazy part is? People talk about trending on Twitter.

There was none of that back in the day.

We trended on Yahoo, which was a big deal. When you were in, like, the top

in Yahoo, which we were the top one for, like, two or three days straight, that

was big.

But for some reason, it was so hard to stick as wrestlers because they always

saw us as a duo and not individuals.

And we debuted as wrestlers.

So all we wanted to be was wrestlers.

So it was, I think, really hard for them to place where to put us.

You look at us, it's like, oh, easy, twins, arm candy.

There you go.

Their idea was to put us with a cologne.

Hey, guys.

And for Miz and Morrison to kind of fight over us. That would be us.

It's boys and girls.

In the beginning, they weren't giving women much time in the ring, so a lot of

their storylines were focused backstage.

Hi, Alberto.

So Brie and I keep getting stuck in these boyfriend storylines. And this is

how Brie and I are. We're not those type of girls.

If they guys were valeting us, now that would make sense.

That's how Brie and I are. When the writers came up to Nicole and I, and

like, we thought of a hilarious story for you two to work with Daniel Bryan.

Daniel, oh my gosh, are you okay?

Yeah. And they're like, well, he's a vegan. And we thought you two could be

fighting for his virginity and see which Bella gets his virginity. You're the

best Bella win.

Oh, thank you, Nikki.

And then you end up finding that he's not a virgin, he's a vegan.

I would still love to be in that meeting of when that all was discussed and

decided, but okay.

Oh, my God.

So we do this crazy, corny story.

We thought you were, uh, you know, um...

Vegan? Oh, absolutely.

I don't eat any meat. But I will admit, there was a lot of fun.

You want this afterthought over us?

Yeah, I mean, when was the last time the afterthought was on TV?

Afterthought? Yeah.

Now I kind of realize why my sister fought so hard. I think there was true

there.

But what this meant is that we had to spend a lot of time with Brian.

Did you see how he looked at me after Twin Magic last week? Nikki, our

connection is so strong.

During this whole storyline, I'm starting to notice something. When I

find Brie, I'm like, where's Brie? Because she was always with me.

She'd be flirting with Daniel Bryan.

You know, you're sitting there waiting to film your pre -tape, and Brian and I

start talking, and we start realizing how much we have in common.

I was like, Wow.

You're like, cool.

Before you know it, we're going to museums before Raw.

We're meeting up on live events. And then we start dating. And the rest is

history.

You

know,

the really neat thing is Brian.

He really started to open my eyes to just women's wrestling.

It was really hard for us to debut as wrestlers, especially having my match,

first one against Victoria, to all of a sudden having to be like arm in arm with

a guy and the story's all about them.

I have to say it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from the men at the time,

but I craved to just be that wrestler. When I saw the girls having their

individual matches and fighting for championships and just...

Fighting. We were getting frustrated.

We were like, okay, then what's next? They're like, well, we're not sure.

Okay, like, can we get back into the women's division and try to go for a

And I was like, well, no.

We're like, what can we do?

Brie and I would be pitching every week, trying to find any way we could to get

into that ring and fight.

And it was like they just couldn't wrap around.

any storyline besides being twins.

So for a little bit, we are off TV, but we're like, we can't be off television

because when you're off television, the crowd forgets about you and you're not

as valuable anymore.

Well, Nicole and I were like, hmm, they look at us right now as like arm candy.

Why don't we use it to stay on television as we're still working the

having the writers try to think of wrestling storylines for us?

And we heard that Vince was starting to bring in celebrity guests as hosts.

So we pitched to be the guest host assistant.

Did not realize that was going to be two years booked as celebrity guest hosts.

But

I'll

take it because it got us back on live events. But Brie and I just kept

in our heads, how do we get back to wrestling?

There was an internet show we started to do called Superstars.

No one ever wanted to wrestle on it. Let me tell you, when you were asked to

wrestle on Superstars, the main event, you were almost like, I'm going to take

back bumps for not television.

But for me, I was like, it's practice.

I get to wrestle.

Someone's watching. We have to impress.

Give us a storyline on that. You will be good.

When I first heard of the Bella Twins, I thought, oh, you know, that's... Pretty

unique. You have these gorgeous, identical twins that want to be a part

but do they really have the goods to deliver?

Brie and I started to wrestle our hearts out on there.

They turned us bad because it's a lot easier to have your bad guys lose.

Producers and all that started to realize the Bellas really love

really want to wrestle.

And Brie and I were the type of girls like, I'll lose every week. I don't

I'll put over your girl. Just let it thin.

And we started to do that and become these heel characters and losers.

They never gave up. They're taking bumps.

They're not complaining.

They're coming every single day, showing up for work, ready to go. And I think

that speaks to the true character of the Bella.

But we started to get really over with the crowd. The crowd wanted more and

from Brie and I.

I remember I was at this New York hot spot with my girlfriends talking, and

of a sudden, I get a text from one of the writers, and I'm like, that's weird.

And I'm reading it, and they're like, Brie, Vince wants you to win the Divas

Championship this Monday on Raw against Steve Torres and do a fun twin thing.

And I'm like, what?

The Divas Championship?

The Divas Division was actually a term to put a spotlight on our women, to give

them something special.

You had Divas on VH1. That was Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.

And at the time, it was really a term of empowerment.

Well, it's about time that our Divas had a championship of their own.

And from a company standpoint, there was a decision that Brie really deserved

this opportunity.

I am a little envious.

Not jealous, but I am a little envious. I wish I could say that I was the first

Bella champ. I can't, but I was also...

so excited for my sister.

And I knew that whatever I can do in her moment that night, I was going to do

the best. I was like, you keep telling me your match, whatever you need me for,

use my body, use my character, use everything.

I just wanted Brie to have this insane, shining moment.

So here we are on a huge night.

It's a distinguishing mark, so you can tell the bells went apart.

I was really grateful that they wanted to put the title on, because that says

they trust you.

So we do it.

I wanted to sit and put a badass mask together.

But we get our time cut, so it really felt like silly. But I'm a heel, so...

you see the switch? I did. The switch was made by the Bellas. The referee's

attention was with Eve. And I actually will never forget, because for me, like,

you tell me about my heel character, well... But Twin Magic, man, worked out

anyway. Bree with the cover here. And Bree is the New Demon champion.

I win, but I'm going to be like, ha -ha, loser.

Loser was our thing.

And I remember walking back, and they're like, you didn't even smile when you

won. And I'm like, oh, was I supposed to? And they're like, well, aren't you

happy you won? And I'm like, back here, I guess.

Out there, I'm Brie Bella, the heel, who cheated to win.

And they're like, good point, but still, smile when you win a title. And I'm

like, oh, damn it, I already screwed up.

And I haven't even champed for 10 minutes.

But my run was short.

And then...

It was like back to the drawing board.

I think maybe going back to the drawing board so many times was exhausting.

It was like if you weren't going for the title shot, then you were hanging out

and catering.

And, like, I didn't want to hang out and catering. And I didn't want to

constantly think of some arm candy spot. Like, I wanted to wrestle.

They just kind of were, like, not happy with how they were being treated.

They just didn't feel like they were being used well.

They felt kind of neglected, and they just wanted more. And they're very, very

ambitious, driven women that want more.

I remember they were like, yeah, girls, we're going to talk to you about your

contract. A week goes by, two weeks go by, a month goes by.

And Brie and I kind of were like, if we're not satisfied, why are we here?

If we're not fulfilled, why are we here?

So my sister and I were just like, are we okay being this for the rest of our

careers?

And the answer was simple, no.

They wanted us to resign, and we said, no, we're not happy.

We want to wrestle, and that's that. And boom, we left.

So my sister and I took that leap of faith.

We left WWE. It was tough, but we trusted it.

Now, I will say that when we walked away from WWE, they were pretty consistent

on calling every few weeks, like, sure, girls, don't want to come back and

wrestle.

And Brie and I were standing our ground, but deep down inside, Brie and I wanted

to go back so bad.

They missed it.

They missed being in the ring. They missed the coworkers.

They just missed the industry.

We even went and did a few indie shows because we just needed to be around it.

We were craving it.

11 months go by.

And my phone rings.

It's Triple H.

He said that they wanted to do a reality show with E and that they want my

sister and I to come back to lead this reality show to showcase women's

wrestling. Literally pulling back the curtain and letting them see the

and how we make the magic.

And Brie and I start talking and we're like, you saw backstage stuff on Hogan

and Macho Man and Ultimate Warrior.

But you never saw anything on the women.

This can actually give women the time they deserve and the love and the

If it's my way to get back to WWE, if this is my way to get the storylines I

want in wrestling, hell yeah, bring the cameras. Let's do this.

When we got the call that it was a massive hit, that we were right under

Kardashians in ratings, we all were like, cost like people care total divas

on fire i mean we literally are making mainstream shit brie and nikki bella

please welcome brie bella nikki bella it's the bella twins and family thanks

having us back and with the success of total divas we went on to do six more

seasons of our own show total bella

What I loved about Total Divas is it finally gave you the opportunity to

get to know Brie and I as individuals.

And my sister and I had this idea that we

should start to showcase in WWE who we really are.

We finally got to be authentic to who we were as individuals.

Why do we have to dress identical?

We're twins. Yes, that's great. We're not clones.

I think people then related to us. They were like, I'm a Nikki.

No, I'm a Brie.

You just got to see this different side of all of us women that created an

emotional connection for the audience where women that watch Total Divas would

all of a sudden be tuning in to watch WWE because they're like, we want to see

the Bella Twins.

And it was amazing because you started to see that change in the crowd.

Little girls and women were inspired by it. They were empowered by it. And they

started to show up. And this was the first for wrestling.

The Bellas started to realize we're not just wrestlers, we're superstars. We can

compete for time in the ring, but there's also this other world that we

build out our brand.

And we are going to build the Bella Army.

And now the Bellas had their army, and it gave them a power that they were able

to use to demand the attention that they needed in the WWE and the attention

they deserved.

And they were the perfect talent to do that show with because they're just not

afraid to show the good, bad, and the ugly.

You got to see Brie's relationship with Daniel Bryan really coming to life, and

then Nikki's relationship with John.

As an audience member, we fall in love with their love.

They weren't afraid to get judged. They weren't afraid to be real. They weren't

afraid to leave it all on the table. And that's why people were intrigued by

them, because they were okay to let it all hang out a little bit.

I just want to take a second to tell everybody here and everybody watching

these girls are extremely brave.

I've loved filming the show. I've loved watching the show. But I also understand

how difficult it is putting their lives out there for everybody to see. It's

extremely challenging at times.

The crazy part about a reality show is that the messy stuff gets aired to

everybody. The thing is, is that what people say out there hurts me inside.

And then for my own sister to get on me and say stuff like, you don't know how

bad it hurts. Yes, I was born bigger. I am bigger. I'm sorry. And now today, you

should be supporting me, but instead, like, you make me feel like... And I...

sucks.

Just like the matches all tell stories about human emotion, Total Divas...

was able to take that even deeper and show, like, the depth of people's lives.

Ladies and gentlemen, my new fiancé.

With all the drama, the tears, the laughter.

As the audience got to learn more about us, we started getting more storylines,

and some of those storylines would, you know, kind of cross over from things

that people saw of us on Total Divas. Like, Bremode.

Bremode.

Bremode.

Okay, on the reality show, it's when I drink a lot.

And this really fun, crazy side comes out. So I came up with this thing of

Bremode activated.

When, like, you really take me to a certain place, and then Bremode gets

activated, which means I'm going to kick your butt.

It was such a moment for me because I felt like I could start to really prove.

Who I always was in this industry because I was always told, no, you can't

these moves. No, you can't be this person. No, you can't wear that.

And finally, I was like, I'm over following the rules.

I'm going to break rules and I'm going to apologize later.

That's when I started to change my own game.

I'm a powerhouse and I'm going to showcase that.

I started to watch a lot of Beth Phoenix's footage.

And all of these women in the past that were very strong.

And I started to look at what men were doing.

I don't care if I'm a woman. I'm going to learn a spine buster.

I'm going to learn how to do a spear in this way. I'm going to learn how to lift

someone from this to get them here.

And I just started to put it all together.

And I started training on different moves.

And, gosh, when the rack attack was born.

That's when I became a force to be reckoned with.

So women's wrestling is finally getting respect. It's getting loved. We're

finally doing what we want to do and what we love.

Our voices are being heard. The fans are being heard. We're bringing in little

girl fans. We're bringing in women fans. We have found our place and we are

becoming equal to the men.

Like, people are literally buying a ticket to see the Total Divas. And then

leg breaks again.

I can't even freaking move.

Dude, that's not good. We're going to have to go to doc.

I want to go to doc.

I knew something was wrong, but I wanted to ignore it because I knew I was in a

moment that was about to break a glass ceiling.

When you get injured in wrestling, you're taken out. You can't perform,

you're not in it.

We're a tag team. We're the Bella Twins.

I thought that was it for me, too.

I mean, I tell you the timing of my life.

It is just not in sync with me.

So they made me go to the hospital, and I remember the doctor coming in like,

you have an insane stress fracture. Like, how are you walking? It's a pretty

significant stress fracture. So what I had talked about last week, about the

four to six weeks, added crutches to it and extended.

So what we're going to do is crutches, non -weight -bearing, so no weight on

that for four weeks. Second four weeks, crutches, partial weight -bearing. After

that, no crutches. I'd say by 12 weeks, back to the ring.

I just remember feeling so down. 12 weeks, I mean, that's like six lifetimes

wrestling. With Nikki out, I knew I had to go back to the drawing board. I had

to think really hard, how can I keep myself on television?

You know, during this time, Stephanie and Brian have this story that is

and becoming the top story to tune into on Monday Night Raw. You have wanted to

strip me of this title ever since I beat your husband at WrestleMania 30. My

husband, of course, Triple H, we were the authority and I am a villain, right?

So I was abusing my authority.

He slaps him, she's... threatened to fire him. She's done all these mean

to him. But as a man, he physically can't do anything bad.

And they all were like, but Bree can.

I was like, I know my story.

My story is getting revenge on a woman who is being so awful to my husband.

Stephanie didn't always work with talent.

She was very picky with that, and it was just something you couldn't fight.

One of the principal owners of WWE,

Stephanie McMahon.

Stephanie grew up in the industry, and she'd been a part of so many high

-profile storylines.

With McMahon's, it's always very black and white, good and bad. They had this

really beautiful foundation for an incredible story.

Let's have a very...

warm round of applause for the wwe world heavyweight champion daniel

bryan it was almost like they gave a tutorial a lesson to everybody else

storytelling stay away and because there's so many people tuning into total

divas you have all these new females watching so like Brie, how dare this

And it was amazing because they were invested.

They were so invested in Brie and Brian's life inside WWE and outside of

You only like me because I'm the champion.

Ew. Like, if they make me get rid of the titles, you're just going to leave me.

And this is when pure magic started happening. Like, we couldn't even stop

It was just the story unfolding.

Surrender the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, or she is.

FIRED!

Wild. This is why I love wrestling.

Come on out here, Daniel!

I'll never forget that night.

Daniel Bryan's music hits.

And Brie comes out, and then, just like a wife would, she tells

a woman off.

Actually, I refuse to be a powerless victim.

You don't control me.

See, but Brie, I do.

Because you work for me.

You can't fire me. I quit!

I think it's one of the hardest laughs I've ever been on the

receiving end of, I thought.

stars. Everyone used to say that that was the slap you heard around the world.

It was kind of like, ooh, is there something there?

As talent in wrestling, if you can make your fans disgust with that real or

fake, that's when you got it. That's when you sold the story.

It took me to a completely different level.

And I have to say, I felt like I became a top star.

And then it was so cool because at this point, I'm back. I've overcome this

injury. Good to go.

I'm cleared.

All right. Yay!

So to keep the story of bringing Stephanie going, we felt that naturally

amazing for Stephanie to put me in these moments that there's no way I could get

out of.

Tonight's match should by all rights be a tag team match, but instead, you're

going to have to go it alone.

Like two or three, tie my hand behind my back.

But I always show up. I'm always ready to fight.

And I took that going into it like real life. Like I made sure that that was the

feeling. And we naturally kept doing more and more because the fans were

behind it.

To where the Bella Army literally started to call me Fearless Nikki.

It naturally came about. It was not from the company. It was not from me. It was

from my fans.

I became a star.

I became who I was meant to be.

Fearless Nikki was born.

And Brie gets a match against Stephanie at SummerSlam.

It gets sold so quick. And so many of that female demo, especially from the

network. So many women showed up because they could not believe Brie Bella was

fighting her boss. They didn't even care that it was John Cena or Brock Lesnar

on the card. They wanted to see Brie Bella fight her boss. I mean, she truly

a fan favorite, and I truly am not.

So that in and of itself really worked together.

And then because Fearless Nikki was on the rise during this time that no one

expected, they were like, we have to have Nicole a part of this.

So we get to SummerSlam.

And I was so nervous.

I think it was over 10 years since I had had a match at that point. And Brie

really helped keep me calm through the whole scenario.

Brie and Stephanie kill it. The crowd is so invested.

They have this match.

I'll come to Triple H. So people are like, what's going to happen?

I come down.

I get in the ring.

And I get behind Stephanie. Because, of course, double trouble. We're going to

block her in. We're going to twin sandwich her.

Twin magic!

And this is when Vince is a genius.

He was like, you're turning on your sister tonight.

And I was like, what?

Wow. The crowd has no idea what they're in for. We only had one chance to make

people believe that I was sick of being Bree's twin and I was sick of being the

one who was getting beaten up on her decision.

Our timing, our spacing, everything couldn't have been so perfect. And when

grabbed Stephanie and chucked her as hard as I could, which I did.

And I gave Brie that MMA forearm that belonged in UFC and probably not WWE.

That crowd.

I never felt that before just being women in a ring.

Just the three women.

Oh my God!

What?

What the hell just happened?

You had Triple H out on the side. But when you really look at that moment.

Women made the crowd roar like that, not men, purely women.

Those are the moments that you get in this business for.

You know, those are the moments that you take with you forever.

Right after I make a comeback at the SummerSlam, I start to have one of the

runs of my life.

And... I show up one day and they're like, we want you to be a leader of the

division. We have all these plans.

We know you can carry it.

And I just remember feeling so honored that day and so excited. And they're

like, okay, you guys have 15 minutes. Tell a story.

And I was like, this is perfect.

AJ Lee and I, we come up with a great match.

It was amazing.

And right before we got in the grill, they're like, oh, do you guys have about

five minutes? And we're like, five minutes?

You have a two -hour show, so if the first match goes longer, the second

goes longer, the third match goes longer, time runs out.

And when time gets cut on the show, a lot of the time it comes from the

matches. And a lot of fans had taken notice that for a long, long time they

saying, why are the girls' matches so short?

But okay, we're going to try and make it work.

We get in grill and they go, so, um, you think you could do this in, like, less

than a minute?

And I just remember thinking, like, here we go.

So Brie came up with this amazing idea, like, AJ, if you're okay with it, what

if I jump up and I give you that kiss to death, which turns into Nikki's

finisher, and it kind of gives it to me.

So we're like, okay, we can do it in less than a minute.

So now I've become the new Divas Champion.

But deep down, I wasn't happy about it. I wanted to give them an epic match. I

wanted the crowd to be on the edge of their seat, and I didn't want them to

my win coming.

I felt like, are we really taking steps back, and why?

We were on this huge high in top stories, and all of a sudden, we're

told, like, hey, you guys have 10 minutes. And then all of a sudden, hey,

guys have five minutes.

Oh, hey, you guys have two minutes. Can you just do a little heat and then a

finish?

From Scottsdale, Arizona, Brie and the Divas champion, Nikki, the Bella

Twins.

Brie and I have a tag match against Paige and Emma.

And the people in the back literally came to us before we were about to go

They said, can you guys make your tag match two minutes?

But with entrances. So you probably will have like, I don't know, minute 30 in

the ring.

minute 30 in a ring to tell a tag match.

We're furious.

And I'm like, top guys don't have to tell stories in two minutes.

No one who has a top story has to tell a story in two minutes. It's impossible.

When you give us less time on what we're doing, you know what the fans want as

well. You're what they believe in. You're taking it away from them. And

not what they want as a viewer. It's someone who pays a ticket to watch their

superhero. We were mad that there was something inside all four of us.

We all looked at each other and were like, let's give them a finisher.

If that's all they really want is to see us walk out there, then it doesn't

matter what we do.

And we went out there, gave a finisher.

One, two, three.

We walked back.

Our producer was like, you guys still had another minute and 15 seconds.

We were giving them the middle fingers, I'll be honest.

And you know what? We all were going to take the chance of getting fired, and

that's okay.

The fans just went crazy.

They didn't understand. Like, why did the girls have such a short match? This

ridiculous. This is embarrassing.

It was like the last straw.

Because we gave them a taste of what we can do. We gained their respect.

They wanted more, and our company wasn't giving it. They hashtagged Give Divas a

Chance because they were so tired of seeing the ups and downs for divas.

And this hashtag trended worldwide for three days, specifically demanding

storylines, better character development, longer matches, more

And we responded in the biggest way possible with Vince McMahon.

saying, we hear you, keep watching, hashtag give divas a chance.

And that was super inspirational for everyone to see, like sometimes you have

go out and get it, and you've got to demand it. It was the fans, it was the

wrestlers, it was the girls being like, done, we're not doing this anymore.

I'm happy that night we did it, because I feel like that changed women's

wrestling at WWE for good.

I remember I was driving on my own. I was doing live events, and I didn't have

Brian or Nikki.

And I was, like, really thinking. I'm like, you know what?

I've done amazing things in my career.

I've learned. I've grown. I've become a woman. I've fought for women.

It is okay for this chapter of my life to be done.

It is time for me to be a mom. And when I told my husband I will retire at

WrestleMania and we can start to try for a baby, his face, it was like we could

do something together.

And that was my decision to retire.

In this moment of fighting for change, and most importantly, fighting for

equality, wanting to be equal to the male superstars, a lot of us felt we had

wrestle with the male.

I wanted to do a stair spot.

I remember before I walked out, one of the guys was like, well, if you're doing

that stair spot, you better make sure you do it better than a man.

I was like, oh, that's all you have to say to me.

I will definitely do so.

When you hit the stairs, the stairs break apart and they make this

loud noise. But then the visual of it, you're just like, oh my gosh, it is such

an incredible reaction from the crowd.

So I go out there and I'm prepared to take those stairs better than any man

ever taken them.

But what we didn't realize, there was a steel cage match that night. It was main

eventing. So usually they put the poles through the stairs to prep the steel

cage.

And I did like a sprint with it. I was like, I'm going to make myself a bullet.

I felt like I hit the strongest brick wall in the world.

And I remember laying on my back and I had knocked the wind out of myself.

I think I just snapped my collarbone in half.

In professional wrestling, we're out there to entertain.

But the one thing I think sometimes people forget is that we give our body.

So I'm wrestling five nights a week and just giving it my all.

I'm hitting the rack attack every night and I didn't want to stop.

And nothing like a cortisone shot to just get you through the next day.

at the time I was the champion. So I'm not going to go tell the doctor and get

-rays. I don't want to lose my momentum. I don't want to lose my spot. I want to

stay to be the champion.

Not smart though.

Start. to, like, get these lumps on my back.

And I start to tell Bree, like, Bree, I'm in a lot of pain. Like, when I wake

in the night, I have to stand up because it hurts too much to lay down.

She kept feeling this severe pain in her neck, her back. It was getting to her

legs. She was losing feeling.

There's something wrong.

We're live on TV, and there was some type of move going on where, with Paige

my rack, I get knocked, and it causes her to hit my neck, and my leg just went

up. They were, like, paralyzed.

It was only for a few seconds, but I remember thinking, like, holy cow,

something's wrong.

And that's when I demanded the x -ray and the MRI.

I go in, and literally, the guy at the hospital comes out and was

like... You are about to be paralyzed.

It's like, or lights out. You need emergency surgery.

And we realized it was the rack attack over time was slowly breaking my neck.

So I knew about this doctor who was incredible with spines.

And I was like, hey, Dr. eBay, I think my neck is about to break in half.

And he's like, you need emergency surgery.

I think I can go in, clean everything up, and then we do a bone fusion.

He goes, you can work out again.

Wrestling, you are completely done.

And I just remember hearing those words like, what was that?

Going into surgery, there's a lot of risk.

Literally one touch to your spinal cord and you could be paralyzed.

If I can't compete in that ring, at least I want to walk through life as

as possible. So no matter what, I am going to stay fearless and do the best I

can. So when you're signing all those papers before surgery, you're kind of

like, I just remember freaking out.

Okay, I might get paralyzed.

Maybe I won't wake up.

And I think John really felt that.

He was a big part of how I got through that.

He never left my side.

I just remember as I was slowly falling asleep, I was like, I'm so scared.

But then waking up, I'm around family, I'm around loved ones, and seeing Dr.

Uribe and him telling me it was successful, Nikki, you are good. Oh, my

was like the best orgasm in the world.

It's so crazy amazing, goodness.

That means I can do whatever I want.

She's going to recover very healthy. Yeah.

She's already planning her comeback.

It is the night legends show youthful exuberance.

Legacies are born or laid to rest forever.

This is Bree's last match tonight.

Okay.

Everyone knew that my last night was going to be at WrestleMania.

And Vince wanted to make it special by, I mean, wrestling with all the girls.

Winning the match.

And then them just, like, kind of celebrating me.

And it was neat because last minute they're like, we need to have Nikki walk

down that ramp.

And they weren't sure just because she was still in her neck brace.

I had to be in a neck brace for six months.

I was really embarrassed at first, but I was like, you got to let go, Nicole.

Like, you just go.

Oh my gosh, to fill the crowd again was so incredible.

To also be there for Bree's retirement match was amazing.

But I was really happy for her for making that decision in her life of

this is what I want to do. I want to be a mom. That's pretty badass in its own

way.

I wasn't the girl who needed to have that big singles match, one -on -one,

all the attention on me.

I always wanted to empower, support other women.

To have that moment with all these girls I wrestled with, filmed a reality show

with, where we had to put our lives out to everyone, to be in the ring with all

of them, it's all I ever wanted.

And the topper that night is when they took away the Divas title belt and they

said women are no longer called Divas. They are so much more than Divas here in

this ring today.

They are all WWE superstars.

And they introduced the Women's Raw Championship.

And we didn't have to have this feminine title.

We could have the same title as the men.

And I was like, I helped do this.

I helped this night happen by turning all our no's into yeses, all the

into positives, and believing in one thing. There's not one spot for one

that many women.

can have many spots, and that all of us can be successful.

You know, it was weird because in that moment, your soul and, like, your

intuition, your gut kind of tell you when things are done. You kind of just

that feeling when, like, a door is closed.

My door didn't feel closed with wrestling.

After I retired from wrestling, I started to try to have a baby with

we were lucky. Four months later, I was pregnant.

And now that I'm a mom, what an amazing job, if you call it, it is.

I think it's time to take a bath.

What do you think? I thought, like, okay, I'm going to make sure I'm really

my career. And then, yes, I'm a mom and all that. But now, after I held my baby

for the first time, it's like, no, I'm a mom first.

And then I'm a career woman.

I didn't realize how much I would love to be a mom.

And I would never trade any of that for anything in the world.

All right, Brie, I love you. Okay, I love you, too.

So I come back at SummerSlam in Brooklyn, New York, which Brooklyn, oh,

crowd goes wild. I wasn't even expecting that. I almost forgot how to do my

booty shake in that moment because I was, like, so floored by the reaction.

You felt the love. Like, you even see some of the girls in the ring break

character because they felt the emotions.

For anybody to come back from any sort of an injury is tough. To come back from

a neck injury is a different animal.

Oh, wow.

You're showing us how fit she is.

She's a beast and absolutely nothing can stop her. She is what she says she is.

She's fearless.

When I look back, I never would have

thought it would have ended where it did.

Having this beautiful tag team match with John at WrestleMania.

With John

grabbing a mic in front of millions and millions of people.

Stephanie Nicole Garcia -Cola.

Will you marry me?

I just remember feeling like the luckiest girl in the world.

It was huge.

The proposal was massive, and the fans were all a part of it, and it was so

cool.

I think that's why it was so...

challenging probably after because everyone was so emotionally invested in

journey through the show and then through the proposal that when it was

was hard for people to handle it for some reason since birdie's been born and

i've spent a lot of time with birdie it has just brought up these feelings of

really wanting to be a mom and i thought i could really sacrifice

that and i just can't

In a time that everyone was excited about this wedding, she had the strength

and the fortitude, knowing she needed to make a decision that would be extremely

hard. And as her mother, I saw the heat she got. Every time you turn around, you

know, I would see something online about them.

I still see the trolls online that still make comments, that won't let it go,

and it's really hard as her sister to not be able to protect her from all

I don't know how I'm going to do without you.

I took away everyone's fairytale ending.

People hated me for it.

I couldn't do easy.

I knew I had to go through hard, and that is the hardest thing to do, to walk

away from someone that you love.

But it's also empowering when you can walk away from something that you know

isn't right so that the future would be happy.

Here I just had this massive public breakup with John and I was avoiding

Vince McMahon calls me.

And he says, we're going to do an all -women's pay -per -view, and I want you

main event it against Ronda Rousey with Brie by your side.

To get that call from Vince, I mean, that's huge.

This is what we've been waiting for. This is what us women were fighting for,

have an event, just women, on one card for one night.

That's incredible. And to finally main event something like that. Now that, for

me, is my Oscar.

There was a lot of belief that it wouldn't draw or that it wouldn't be any

And yet WWE decided that they were going to do this and plant their flag in the

ground. The fellas believe that they're the reason there's a evolution tonight.

I do agree with them. I think that they were the first women that were part of

the hashtag Give Divas a Chance. They've been here through the entire journey.

It was quite remarkable. And we sold out Nassau Coliseum.

Our women just absolutely shine.

We did trend number one worldwide for over two and a half hours during the

game of the World Series and NFL Sunday Night Football.

That was probably my favorite time losing.

My ultimate fave.

It was amazing for all the women to be able to come together as a collaborative

group to go, hey, we just sold out an arena with just women.

It was like the perfect ending.

I just knew it was time for me to retire and pass the torch to the next

generation. My sister and I, we had accomplished all we set out to do in the

ring for ourselves and for women's wrestling as a whole.

And I just knew it was time for me to focus on the next chapters of my life.

When I got the call to do Dancing with the Stars, I was super excited.

I was like, you know what? The timing's perfect.

Let's see what I got on the dance floor.

Well, what's the first thing you say when you get someone new? Because you

someone new all the time. What's the first thing you say?

You want to make sure that they're not just doing a step, they're bringing

themselves into it. Because people like them for certain reasons.

And we want to feel like Nicole in that sound. But it's not just a step.

I'm happy that my sister found who she's really meant to be with.

And that's Arda.

I don't think that the word can describe how you make me feel.

Will you marry me?

Yes.

You all knew.

I have found the next step in my life.

I have a beautiful fiance and I'm living the life I've always wanted to live.

Artem calms Nicole.

Artem has a very soothing personality.

And she is relaxed around Artem.

He brings out who my sister really is.

There's just something so special about him. It's crazy.

And he's so open about me reconnecting with my dad.

I never stopped being a good father. It's just my addiction made me stop

here. So I promised to my God that I would be a different man.

And you are, Dad.

I'm pregnant.

No, you're not. Yes, I am. No, you're lying.

I haven't told you, but Brie told me that she's pregnant.

So, hold on. Wait a second. You're both pregnant?

When your stomachs were right next to each other, they looked like two boobs.

Oh, yeah, because the nipples.

You and Artem, the one thing I'll say, your guys' excitement is so cute.

You guys are going to be amazing parents.

I really love being...

This career woman who gets to be a hands -on mom, it's the toughest job I've

done and yet the most rewarding.

We just truly get to enjoy being hands -on parents, not worrying about the

or, you know, what we do for work. We get to totally disconnect with him and

just get to be present with him when we're home.

Hmm. Yeah.

You want cameras, don't you, mister?

Now I'm an entrepreneur with Brie.

I love running companies. I love being creative.

I love being in the wine industry.

So for us to move to Napa Valley meant we were just going to blossom one of our

other companies the way we did in wrestling.

You know, the one thing in WWE is you learned about branding. So we wanted to

take that into the business world. I love how it says Bella's.

It's, like, clean. I love it. It's really cool.

So what?

You like it, huh?

This is why Mama wanted to make it.

I think people are shocked because if you come into our lives here in Napa

Valley, you realize that we have just a simple, very normal day -to -day life.

Can you say hi, Daddy?

My sister and I joke about this all the time, but we understand way back in the

day when pretty much all families lived together.

Because it does take a village to raise a child. And I've been really blessed.

Nicole and I have always figured out a way to live by each other because we

realized life's just easier.

I couldn't imagine being in Napa living life without my sister and her family

across the street.

It's never boring. It's just straight out.

Arden and I got very little decision making in this.

And this whole move to Napa.

Yeah. It is crazy to think about.

And all of a sudden it occurred to me, if I die, I can be replaced.

She can't replace Nicole.

2022, the Bellas would be back.

Oh, my gosh.

Reed, this just made it so much more real. And we're back.

Fellas are back, baby.

It's so funny because I feel like I've told everyone I retired like seven times

already. And I keep coming back for these little matches. But I will say

one's special.

My daughter, Birdie, was like, Mom, I really want to go see you wrestle.

And in my head, I'm thinking, I don't know the next time WWE is going to call

and ask me to come again.

Like, you just never know. I mean, the last time I wrestled was Evolution.

That was three years ago.

We're here to celebrate, but we are here to prove something, you know.

Prove that the Bellas are back.

We're forced to be reckoned with.

And that, I don't know, we're still amongst the best.

There's also that feeling of like, will I be accepted?

Like, of who I am now.

I told her, it's different. After you have kids, different.

Woo!

Tomorrow, I'll be in my jersey, my snapback, my kicks.

Running out so you can look, but you can't touch.

Putting on my gear for the first time since having a baby made me a bit

insecure, and I kind of had to fight myself. Like, do I look like I'm

up as Nikki Bella, or do I look like Nikki Bella?

Rewarn me. She goes, when you become a mom, you can't expect to be who you

You're someone new, and you have to accept that and find who she is.

And I finally found myself.

But then putting my gear back on, that was tough.

That was really tough.

The following is the 30 -woman Royal Rumble Match!

Whoa!

Bella Army, rejoice!

What happened to Bella Twins, the Hall of Famer, Divas Champion?

She was in the first Royal Rumble 2018.

We're talking about not having friends, eliminated by her sister, if you

remember.

Oh, wow.

To go back out to the WWE Universe.

Brie Bella in full -blown Brie mode.

To hear the yes chant.

In front of my daughter.

And listen, listen to this place.

The crowd here at St.

Louis loving it.

It was really incredible.

Bella Hall is going to be on their feet now.

Many thought we would never, ever see again Nikki Bella making her entrance

the Women's Royal Rumble match.

Oh, great physical condition.

When I saw Ronda Rousey come out, it's like, all right.

We're out of here.

So I'm going to take Nikki out with pleasure, with a big smile on my face.

Okay, I got to give it to Brie. You know, Brie taking me out of the rumble,

it felt pretty good. I had to eliminate Nikki in the Royal Rumble because

revenge is a bitch.

It's always been me getting the one up on her, and nothing made it feel more

full circle for me than Brie getting her one up on me. It made it pretty iconic,

and it felt so good.

The Bellas have become huge role models for everyone everywhere.

To see the things that they've accomplished within the business, for

business, and now outside of the business is truly impressive.

They're driven by passion and the things that they love and are interested in.

They don't fake anything.

They're showing and inspiring women around the world that you can dream big

sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but you've got to keep

fighting. Please welcome to the WWE Hall of Fame, Nikki and Brie Bella.

I feel blessed of the next step in my life.

But wrestling will never be done.

That door will always be open. That will always be home.

And I will always make a comeback.

We are part of WWE history.

And let me tell you, when you fight for something and it is recognized, that is

the ultimate feeling you can get.