Kemo
12-23-2021, 07:46 PM
The Bella Twins are two of the most accomplished women in pro wrestling history. According to Nikki and Brie, they may have never made it to the WWE Hall of Fame if not for Freddie Prinze Jr.
The Bellas are the latest guests on FPJ’s latest Wrestling With Freddie podcast. During their discussion, Brie recalls that it was Prinze who kept pushing WWE officials to call them up from Florida Championship Wrestling.
“We do give you a lot of credit, because we were down in FCW for so long and they were like, ‘We just don’t know what to do with twins.’” said Brie. “We’re like, ‘Seems like it writes itself.’ It was your ideas that you kept pushing that I think it made people in the company see there was something special.”
Brie recalls training at [former developmental territory] Florida Championship Wrestling and growing frustrated because WWE couldn’t figure out what to do with them.
Things did not get much better once they made it to the main roster and wrestled as “Divas.” After five years on WWE TV, they were ready to leave because they were not happy with the way women were being portrayed on television.
“We did a five-year contract, we were on TV for five years and our five years was coming up,” said Brie. “I remember at that point, we didn’t like how women were treated in WWE. The two minute matches, but we were allowed to have 10 minutes at live events. What we were working on at live events, we could never showcase on TV and our stories didn’t have depth.”
Nikki recalls that morale amongst the female wrestlers was at an all-time low during the early 2010’s.
“We needed to find a way to be treated like the men and treated equally,” she said. “That’s what we wanted for the women. We wanted to empower the women. We were about everyone. ‘Who are we getting over today? What’s the story?’ We never worried about getting our shit in. We just wanted everything to be good and for people to be happy.”
Nikki Bella describes morale as “miserable” and hopeless during the lowest points of women’s wrestling in WWE.
“The locker room was becoming so miserable, because girls were working so hard on live events and getting to Raw or SmackDown and being so disappointed. They were losing their will and their hope. We were like, ‘there needs to be a massive change here, this is not good.’”
Brie feels that the Total Divas reality show (2013) was a huge turning point for WWE’s perception of women’s wrestlers.
“Vince is about putting asses in seats,” she said. “He cares about money. The one thing Total Divas did was it showed Vince that people were coming to the shows to see women. It was more than just men. It started being young girls and women buying tickets just to see the Total Divas.”
Years later, WWE ultimately embraced the ‘Women’s Revolution.’ Athleticism and wrestling ability are valued over bikinis and pillow fighting. Women’s wrestling has come a long way since the Bella Twins’ days in Florida Championship Wrestling. They were a big part of that revolution and credit Freddie Prinze Jr. with helping get it started.
The Bellas are the latest guests on FPJ’s latest Wrestling With Freddie podcast. During their discussion, Brie recalls that it was Prinze who kept pushing WWE officials to call them up from Florida Championship Wrestling.
“We do give you a lot of credit, because we were down in FCW for so long and they were like, ‘We just don’t know what to do with twins.’” said Brie. “We’re like, ‘Seems like it writes itself.’ It was your ideas that you kept pushing that I think it made people in the company see there was something special.”
Brie recalls training at [former developmental territory] Florida Championship Wrestling and growing frustrated because WWE couldn’t figure out what to do with them.
Things did not get much better once they made it to the main roster and wrestled as “Divas.” After five years on WWE TV, they were ready to leave because they were not happy with the way women were being portrayed on television.
“We did a five-year contract, we were on TV for five years and our five years was coming up,” said Brie. “I remember at that point, we didn’t like how women were treated in WWE. The two minute matches, but we were allowed to have 10 minutes at live events. What we were working on at live events, we could never showcase on TV and our stories didn’t have depth.”
Nikki recalls that morale amongst the female wrestlers was at an all-time low during the early 2010’s.
“We needed to find a way to be treated like the men and treated equally,” she said. “That’s what we wanted for the women. We wanted to empower the women. We were about everyone. ‘Who are we getting over today? What’s the story?’ We never worried about getting our shit in. We just wanted everything to be good and for people to be happy.”
Nikki Bella describes morale as “miserable” and hopeless during the lowest points of women’s wrestling in WWE.
“The locker room was becoming so miserable, because girls were working so hard on live events and getting to Raw or SmackDown and being so disappointed. They were losing their will and their hope. We were like, ‘there needs to be a massive change here, this is not good.’”
Brie feels that the Total Divas reality show (2013) was a huge turning point for WWE’s perception of women’s wrestlers.
“Vince is about putting asses in seats,” she said. “He cares about money. The one thing Total Divas did was it showed Vince that people were coming to the shows to see women. It was more than just men. It started being young girls and women buying tickets just to see the Total Divas.”
Years later, WWE ultimately embraced the ‘Women’s Revolution.’ Athleticism and wrestling ability are valued over bikinis and pillow fighting. Women’s wrestling has come a long way since the Bella Twins’ days in Florida Championship Wrestling. They were a big part of that revolution and credit Freddie Prinze Jr. with helping get it started.