WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella was interviewed by NBC Chicago on her 40th birthday.
One of the questions asked of her was about her name. WWE owns the trademark to Nikki Bella so she is now using her real name Nikki Garcia on all post-WWE projects. Nikki said that there was confusion at first when she had to change her name from Bella to her real last name and there were some hard moments because it was hard to let go of the name but she wants to make history as Nikki Garcia.
She was asked about pro wrestling stars she would like to see on Barmageddon and she stated that she’s love to see Natalya and Tyson Kidd vs. Naomi (Triniti) and Jimmy Uso. She added, “Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair would be very good” and it would be cool to have “their guys” in there as surprises.
She was asked about being omitted from the promo that Michael Cole read last week to promote USA Network’s Barmageddon. Nikki is the host but her name wasn’t mentioned and instead, creator Blake Sheldon was mentioned in the promo copy. Nikki said that she was sad to hear that.
Nikki said, “It’s sad. There’s obviously a lot of things I could say about that. I think more than anything it’s disappointing. I worked there for 16 years and I helped paved the way for them. Not only that, they’ve always been family to me. Walking away, for me, it wasn’t malicious. I’m at a point in my life and I wanted to do things without hearing the word ‘no’ and it was just strictly business. Maybe there were some personal things that happened over the years that also pushed me toward that but I think more than anything it’s disappointing because I don’t see it happening with the men. For some reason with the women who are outspoken and we’ve seen this with the women in the past, they just want to ban us. I think it’s sad because we all look at it as family and so, okay, they don’t want to say my name. That’s fine but hey Barmageddon got a shout out.”
Nikki said that she still talks with people and they will be family to her and the fans will be family as well as her “Bella Army.”
