WWE: Nikki Bella’s in-ring work was under-appreciated

In March, Nikki Bella revealed her decision to retire from professional wrestling. The main reason she decided to step away from the business was because of recurring neck injuries. 

Seeing Nikki Bella step away from the WWE is actually a blessing in disguise for two reasons. The first being that for Nikki, it’s a fortunate blessing for her to end her career on her terms considering that not a lot of former athletes can say that.

The second being because it finally gives us the time to reflect on the career she leaves behind. Not only her career, but the fan perception of her. Truth be told, The Fearless Warrior was an under-appreciated part of the women’s division.

The Bella Twins debuted on WWE television in 2008. They proved to be a solid act and continued to work well together for the next decade. However, Nikki truly started to hone her craft and impress fans when she started to focus on her singles career in 2014.

For whatever reason, Nikki Bella decided to completely rebrand her look and moveset. Maybe it was due to the challenge of feuding with her sister, Brie, coming out of SummerSlam. Perhaps it was just time for a change after being with the company for so many years.

Whatever the reason may have been, the new Nikki Bella arrived in full effect post-SummerSlam 2014 and from the get-go, it was awesome. OK, maybe not storyline-wise – the Brie/Nikki feud admittedly and disappointingly flopped – but Nikki drastically improved.

It was at this point in time that Nikki started throwing stiff forearms like she was competing for a NJPW contract. In becoming Fearless, Nikki started wrasslin – not wrestling, WRASSLIN – like a bonafide hoss living in her own division. Like a scrappy fighter with a dash of a strongman showmanship.

Nikki started to take advantage of every ounce of her muscle and strength to implement more powerhouse moves into her arsenal. This would most notably include the Rack Attack (the torture rack version). The change also did wonders for her heel character, as she’d show a cockier side in the ring, often doing push-ups after every other move just to goad her opponent.

Stuff like this made Nikki a joy to watch in the ring and she showed some great chemistry with her opponents. Some of her best matches were against the likes of Paige, AJ Lee, and especially Charlotte Flair.

In truly apropos timing, a year after Nikki perfected the craft she began to utilize after SummerSlam 2014, a younger, better crop of women were emerging from NXT. This was a blessing and a curse for Nikki. Curse because fans were more interested in this new crop of stars over the veteran and started to overlook her as old news pretty quickly. However, this was a blessing because Nikki was able to use that escalated fatigue from the crowd and use it to put on a new babyface in Charlotte Flair.

A big reason why Charlotte’s introduction to the main roster in 2015 was such a success was because she introduced herself to mainstream audiences by challenging Nikki Bella for the Divas Championship in a series of matches both on television and on PPV. Not only were the matches good, but fans were desperate to a see a change. They wanted something refreshing to happen to that division in the wake of the emerging Women’s Revolution.

Since Nikki Bella was presented as the final remnant of the Divas division, she brilliantly incorporated this into her heel persona to become the charismatically annoying villain we all loved to hate. It made it all the more satisfying to see Charlotte win her first main roster women’s championship from Nikki. It made for a proper passing of the torch and just an outright great rub for the fledgling rookie.

A big reason why Charlotte’s win worked so well was because Nikki made her look good. Essentially, the Fearless One was used as the final boss which Charlotte needed to bypass before not only winning her first main roster title, but becoming the face of the women’s division. To this day, Charlotte remains one of the key figures of that division. We may have not gotten to this point if Nikki Bella didn’t work so hard to ensure that Charlotte looked like a million bucks.

They say that no hero ever excels without the perfect villain. Echoing The Rowdy One’s own words as he uttered them at Halloween Havoc 1996, 80’s fans would have not loved Hulk Hogan as much as they did if they didn’t hate Roddy Piper so much. The same can be said about Nikki in relation to Charlotte. Fans booed her as an example of the bygone Divas era. When a fresh babyface in Charlotte Flair storms in as this young, new, hungry babyface, Charlotte was easy to cheer and made for a seamless transition into the Women’s Revolution.

More than just receiving a rub towards greatness, Charlotte Flair learned how to become the ideal WWE Superstar. In The Queen’s own words, she recalls coming up to the main roster as “this little kid from NXT not knowing what it was like to be a Superstar and I just looked at [Nikki Bella] as this Superstar.” Clearly, she learned a thing or two about character work from working with Ms. Fearless. She looked at the charismatic, strongman showmanship that Nikki displayed and seems to have developed that as a template for her own character.

Four years after they worked together, Charlotte Flair stands tall as the most hated, cockiest heel in her division. I don’t think Charlotte would have adopted her character so easily if she didn’t learn from one of the best to ever do it in Nikki Bella and Nikki deserves some credit for that.

She caught a lot of flak during her best years on the roster, but Nikki Bella is no different than any other woman in the division. The only difference is she has a reality show and once had a boyfriend who made people question exactly why she had such a high spot in her division. As it turned out, she earned that spot from hard work, trying to balance press tours with in-ring training and constantly trying to improve herself as a competitor. We may never get to see Nikki Bella in the ring again, but it sure was a blast while it lasted.