While appearing on the “Tamron Hall” talk show this week, Nikki & Brie Bella explained why they were critical of the women’s representation on Raw’s 30th anniversary episode.
The Bellas did an Instagram live video on Monday night calling out WWE for not showcasing the women’s evolution on Raw’s anniversary show. They mentioned Mercedes Mone (Sasha Banks) and Saraya (Paige) as people who WWE didn’t want to feature.
Nikki & Brie were originally announced for the anniversary show but were pulled from advertising prior to the episode taking place. Madusa was the only women’s legend who appeared.
Hall asked the Bellas what made them want to speak out about the lack of representation.
Nikki: I think what anyone does when you have love and passion for something and you put your heart and your soul in it, you want to be appreciated. And I think that’s in any industry. For us female wrestlers, it was Raw 30, the 30th anniversary. And throughout those 30 years, women have done a whole lot to make Raw what it is. So when you have a three-hour show, and it’s male-dominated and women aren’t being honored, pretty much at all, you just sit back and you’re like, ‘Why aren’t we being appreciated? Like, why don’t you even have a video package showcasing what all these incredible women have done?’
Nikki: I’m someone who they’ve always called ‘No Filter Nikki.’ And I know sometimes my team is like back there like, ‘Oh my gosh, if we could just take her phone.’ But — it made me upset for all the women, because I know that feeling of walking out to the ring. and it happens to some of the men, but where you walk out and you put your body on the line, you give it your all just to entertain the fans and the TV viewers, and you just come back and you want to feel appreciated for that. Some of us have had career-ending injuries. And we shouldn’t go away. And even if I feel that if a wrestler even leaves the company or they’re no longer there, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be remembered.
Brie: 100 percent.
Nikki: I wished and I hoped, and maybe that will be more in the future, we still have a way to go, but that women will finally be appreciated for what they do.
Brie: I think the biggest thing is that what the women are doing today at WWE is amazing. Like, the present-day women wrestlers are doing incredible things. But it took so many women from the past to pave that road. And it’s okay to say ‘thank you’ and recognize that. And I think when Nikki and I speak, it always makes headlines. But the thing that we love is that we come from passion for women, not from ourselves. The Bella Twins don’t have to be at Raw 30, it’s all the other women that — we can give you a whole long list — that should have been there.
Raw 30 also drew criticism for failing to deliver on a Becky Lynch vs. Bayley steel cage match that was supposed to take place on the show. There was instead an angle where Damage CTRL attacked Lynch and prevented the match from happening. The decision to nix the steel cage match was made after The Bloodline’s Trial of Sami Zayn segment went long.
