Nikki Bella was recently interviewed by PWInsider and spoke about how influential the WWE reality show 'Total Divas' has become. Nikki believes that Total Divas has been a major factor in cultivating and growing the female fan base for WWE, as well as taking female WWE superstars into the mainstream. But does she think 'Total Divas' gets enough credit?
“Absolutely not, I don’t think it does at all. What is unfortunate is that when Total Divas was succeeding and we became a hit reality show, they let people with a mic in the ring just bash it and us Total Divas never got a response. So, with the fans, it began to give Total Divas a bad name, ‘Oh, they are just reality stars.’ Actually, while the girls who aren’t on the reality show are just wrestling, us girls on the reality show are wrestling, are filming, are never sleeping, going to appearances, making sure that the world knows how amazing women wrestlers are. So, I don’t feel Total Divas gets enough credit because the words ‘reality show’ has ruined it for people. I think certain people also, characters for the company, have ruined it as well out of pure jealousy. I’ll admit that.”
Bella believes that the E! network reality show, on which she is now an executive producer, helped to start the Women's Revolution in WWE, a distinction normally assigned to a younger generation of WWE
“I think [Total Divas] helped start the women’s revolution. Total Divas [led to] more women starting to come to (WWE events), like, ‘I gotta check this out.’ I remember when Brie was fighting Stephanie McMahon, so many women showed up because they were like, ‘I can’t believe she’s fighting her boss, Oh My Gosh!’ It was crazy for them to even imagine, like, ‘She’s Gonna hit her? Like, This is nuts!’ and so I think Total Divas has done so much for women’s wrestling. It was the first time that we got an hour of TV to ourselves, to really showcase what women do.”
Nikki says it still surprises her how fast the show blew up once it started getting popular.
“It happened so quickly and so fast. I want to say that when seasons one and two came out, both of which we were lucky in that they had 16 episodes each, after that season two….Bam! Everyone wanted to know Natalya, Brie Bella, Naomi, Ariane. Everyone was like, ‘Who are these girls?’ and when we go to events, there would be women wrestlers who weren’t on the show and were getting more TV time than us and [the fans] wouldn’t care about them. They would be, ‘I want to see those Total Divas girls. Can you bring them back?'”
You can read the entire interview at this link.
