Brie Bella discusses the change that Total Divas helped bring to women's wrestling.
In 2013, WWE debuted the reality TV show, Total Divas, with the show running for 9 years as fans got to see behind the scenes of several names of the WWE women's roster. One woman who was a major part of the show - leading to a spinoff - was Brie Bella.
While speaking to Redefined with Leslie & Arielle, Brie Bella was asked about how she managed to thrive in a male dominated industry.
"I was able to take a step back and say, okay, this is a job, but the one thing I noticed quickly is that even though this is a job, what could we do to change? My sister and I, coming from athletics, and being these soccer players and being able to keep up with the boys. As athletes, because we’re always intermingling with the guys, we all get smart allecy with each other and get that thick skin. We already had that mentality going in. My feelings wouldn’t get hurt if people said dumb comments. I always was able to kind of see through people. My sister and I were like, ‘Obviously, this is what they want from women, but we can change that. We do have voices.’ We heard no, a lot, until we finally heard yes. To this day, I will always thank ‘Total Divas’ for becoming such a hit show because it did open up the door for women’s wrestling. Women were already doing incredible things at that time, but it opened it up in a way that allowed more spots for women. It allowed us to be showcased, because really the men only were, and it gave us different opportunities that we were all really begging for. It was hard. I’m not going to say it was easy, because it wasn’t. There were a lot of times I went back to my hotel room and cried and thought, ‘Do I want to be part of this? Is this what I want?’ I’m also very competitive and I knew, ‘Yeah, they’re not going to win.’ It would fire me up in a way and I’d go back and I knew how to stand up for myself. Having a twin (helped). Nothing I would want my daughter to go through."
Total Divas aired it's final episode in December of 2019.
Brie's sister Nikki made her return to the ring at Saturday's Women's Royal Rumble match, entering at number 30. You can read more about that here.
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