Nikki Bella Reveals ‘Cheap Pop’ WWE Promo She Regrets

Published: Feb 21, 2023 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Feb 21, 2023 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

Nikki Bella Reveals ‘Cheap Pop’ WWE Promo She Regrets

Nikki Bella has revealed the WWE promo that she regrets and how she doesn’t want “cheap pops from the crowd anymore.”

Speaking on The Sessions with Renee Paquette, Bella recalled the May 2011 promo from WWE Raw and how she was “fired up” over the unexpected reaction to the success of Total Divas, saying:

“That brought in a lot of hate within people in the back. Some people were super supportive, then there were some that were hating and some got the mic, and they just really expressed it.

“It gave me great fire and it made for great story, but I wish people wouldn’t have believed it beyond that.

“It was also sad for me because to slut shame or tear women down, I was not for that.”

She would then recall the promo from a May 2011 episode of WWE Raw where, after Kharma (Kia Stevens) revealed her real-life pregnancy, the pair would come out and demean her, her relationship, her appearance and her pregnancy, saying:

“I remember when I had to cut a promo on (Awesome) Kong before Brie and I left for eleven months.

“I went with what they said on paper. It was so wrong.

“I talked to Kia (Stevens aka Awesome King) before, and we even talked after, it just didn’t feel good and I didn’t like it.

“I don’t want cheap pops from the crowd anymore, especially if it’s not approved by the woman. I could have said a lot more stuff on the mic to get these greater reactions.

“It was never worth it to me. At the end of the day, we’re still telling stories. That’s kind of how I left the rest of my career.

“Some of the stuff that was said to me, on a hot mic, with not even realizing. I remember being disappointed like, ‘we just took five steps back’ from tearing these barriers down and breaking them.

“We still shattered them, but it took even more work, and I have to live with this hate in this industry, and it’s hard on me because I love wrestling, but I have to carry this cloud of hate with me.”

Nikki has recently expressed confusion over the hate that she gets online, describing herself as “the most hated person online”.

Transcript from Fightful.

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