Nikki Bella Responds To Critics Of Controversial Line On WWE SmackDown
Nikki Bella has clarified what she actually meant after delivering a fiery promo on WWE SmackDown.
The tag team consisting of WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella and former Divas Champion Paige recently lost the Women’s Tag Team Titles to Fatal Influence’s Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Despite the loss, Brie and Paige did a good job as champions for three months. In fact, Brie Bella set a record for having the longest title reign of an active WWE Hall of Famer at 91 days.
On the July 24th edition of WWE SmackDown, Brie beat Reid in a singles match thanks to Paige helping Brie deal with Henley and Jacy Jayne at ringside.
After the match, the Fatal Influence trio beat up Paige and Brie until WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella made her return after missing over three months with an ankle injury. Nikki cleaned house and hit her Rack Attack 2.0 slam to clear the ring.
Following the save, Nikki Bella delivered a promo where she mentioned that at SummerSlam, she’ll team up with Brie & Paige against Fatal Influence. Nikki also threw in this line.
“You b*tches think you can sneak up from the minor leagues, steal from my sisters and get away with it. We are the reason you guys are here.”
As it turns out, the “minor leagues” line upset some people since Nikki was referring to NXT, which is where Fatal Influence was before joining SmackDown.
Nikki Bella Had Good Reason To Say What She Did On WWE SmackDown
While addressing the SmackDown on The Nikki & Brie Show podcast, Nikki Bella spoke about her intention with the promo.
“Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people liked it, and I love what they’re saying to that community that hates me. And I’m like, do you understand how many people can’t make the minor leagues? Like, every pro division, before you get to the pros, has the minors. Every league.
And by the way, there’s a lot of people that can’t even make the minors. Also, in our league, you know how many people try out for NXT and can’t make it? The fact that that was hung onto… I’m thinking like, you’re even missing the point.”
Nikki continued that it was more about getting revenge on Fatal Influence for doing cheap attacks.
“The heel team came in. That was their thing when they came in. They were sneaky, they sneaked up on everyone. So it was to give them the heat back.”
The former Divas Champion continued to make the point that she wanted to create some buzz with her promo, and she did.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking in my head. We have two TVs to sell this match. I knew, and I wanted to be the old Nikki Bella. I’m going to hit it where it makes people rattle a bit, and I’m going to sell this because we’re going to take it to them… Especially after what they did to you guys at MSG.
Also, when are you, Paige and I ever going to get to compete at the level of SummerSlam against a team like this, Fatal Influence? I don’t know if that’ll ever happen again. So, you know what? We’re going to sell that. We’re going to do it.” (H/T Ringsidenews)
Since it is SummerSlam week, WWE announced which matches will take place on Saturday and which matches will take place on Sunday. There are 12 matches total, so it works out perfectly with 6 matches set for each night. The scheduled matches look like this:
The Saturday, August 1st matches are:
- Undisputed WWE Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
- Hell in a Cell Match: Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
- Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan (c) vs. Iyo Sky
- Gunther vs. Nick Aldis
- LA Knight, Royce Keys & Solo Sikoa vs. The Usos – Jimmy & Jey Uso and Jacob Fatu
- The Bella Twins – Nikki & Brie Bella and Paige vs. Fatal Influence – Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid
The Sunday, August 2nd matches are:
- WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Seth Rollins
- WWE Championship #1 Contender’s Match: Sami Zayn vs. Finn Balor
- Intercontinental Championship: Penta (c) vs. Chad Gable
- Interim WWE Women’s Championship Ladder Match: Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill vs. Chelsea Green vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Lash Legend/Giulia Winner
- United States Championship: Trick Williams (c) vs. Baron Corbin
- Danhausen vs. Dominik Mysterio
As you can see above, the Bella Twins & Paige match against Fatal Influence will be on Saturday, August 1st, which is SummerSlam night one.
Also Read: Nikki Bella Reveals WWE Retirement Date