After calling out WWE for the lack of Women’s Evolution representation during Monday Night Raw‘s 30th Anniversary Special, Nikki Bella appeared on another Instagram Live stream this week to address why she and Brie Bella weren’t at the event. She explained that she is spending this week alongside her husband Artem Chigvintsev promoting thier new E! miniseries Nikki Bella Says I Do and expected to have the chance to promote at some point on Raw. However, the WWE Creative team said they had no plans for her.
“We were hoping, I think it was weeks ago, there was talks about going to Monday Night Raw. They said they had nothing for us,” Bella said (h/t Cageside Seats). “So, we were booked on media Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Then there was possibly, maybe, an idea. But our whole team, including WWE and everyone else had already booked us for Monday being in New York. Whatever you see of stuff, you know all of a sudden stories change and whatever. That’s to try and clean up and make things look better and throw it on people — nope. We already had all these commitments, per the company we work for and everyone else.”
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The show was also met with some backlash for the lack of women representation on Raw. The three-hour show only had two women’s matches, one of which (a Steel Cage Match between Becky Lynch and Bayley) had to be scrapped due to the show-opening segment running long. This prompted the hashtag “#WWEWomenDeserveBetter” to start trending, which Bella supported.
“I also love the fans for sticking up for women,” Bella said. “There are so many crybabies, ‘Oh they just whine.’ Let me tell you why people get upset. This is speaking on behalf of the majority of women. ‘Oh, they always make it about them.’ No, just because we speak up, we’re not making it about ourselves. It’s about the women from the very beginning to the ones that are there. I understand why so many people are upset, especially our fans, when it’s something like Raw XXX. I remember when I first started watching Raw, as you all know, some of you like to give me shit for it that I wasn’t a fan the day I was born. But I remember when I started watching Raw before I got into wrestling, and I was obsessed with the matches with Beth Phoenix, and Candice Michelle, and Melina, and Mickie James. And that, for me and my era of wrestling when I became a fan, that was Raw to me.
“And people have all their own memories, right? And that’s why it’s so important to have women represent because, for so many of the fans, they have their different eras of Chyna, of Lita and Trish [Stratus], of Melina, Mickie, Michelle [McCool], Beth, Candice, the list goes on of those incredible women of that era. Then, our era with AJ [Lee/Mendez], Paige, Brie & I, and then so on,” she continued. “So I love that you’re doing that hashtag, and I think you’re going to see a lot of narratives play because people have to protect themselves, and you’re gonna get a lot of women blamed and have people call them crybabies and all that. It’s like, no, we put in just as much effort and work. All those women do, all of them, from every era.”
