- Actor-Inspired Element: It was their idea to be arm candy for the guest hosts of Raw. Their reasoning was that - as WWE had already split them up and had them feud with each other - management might decide they'd "done it all with the twins". Being paired with the guest hosts was a way for them to get on TV and try something new.
- Career Resurrection: They left WWE in 2012 having had a decent run and both as former Divas' Champions, but largely just a novelty act with only a few dedicated fans. Their return the next year as part of Total Divas led to increased status on the roster - Brie first getting a singles push against A.J. Lee, and later an extremely high profile feud with Stephanie McMahon. Nikki too would eventually become the longest reigning Divas' Champion, and both would be extremely influential in the division. It's safe to say their second run is what earned their Hall of Fame inductions.
- Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer: When cutting her first promo as Divas' Champion (the week before the draft), Brie mockingly said to Eve that she hoped she didn't get moved to Smackdown or else her rematch might not happen. This was Brie forgetting that at the time, the Divas' Champion could appear on both shows.
- Contractual Purity: The sisters came up to the main roster around the time WWE made the switch to PG and they faced lots of pressure to preserve that. They said "we were like the G girls" with what they wore. Nikki also got a talking to from Stephanie McMahon after making some sexy gestures on TV. They avoided this after their Face–Heel Turn, their gear becoming a lot more Stripperiffic. Previously in their career, they turned down an offer to pose for Playboy out of respect for their family.
- Corpsing: According to the twins, when they were doing segments with the Colons and Miz & Morrison, they'd need multiple takes because everyone kept bursting into hysterical giggles.
- Costume Backlash: They say as much about their initial ring gear, claiming they were terrified of breaking PG. Diva Dirt columnists routinely tore them apart for those outfits too. Not helping things was the gear they'd spent all their money on making wasn't allowed because it was red and "one of the veterans" was colour-coded with red. The outfits were thus gym pants with swimsuits hurriedly sewn on and glitter spray painted on the hem.
- "We were like the G girls."
- Creator Backlash:
- The twins said as much about their wrestling from when they first turned heel. They theorized that they should do very little and just simply be mean characters. Both twins credit their respective partners for helping them improve their wrestling upon their return to WWE.
- Neither of the twins liked how they were booked when they first debuted; they loved working with Victoria, who they regarded as so talented, but wished they didn't have to beat her constantly and that it had been more even.
- In their book Incomparable, both Bellas admit that the reason they left in 2012 when their contracts expired was sheer frustration about how badly the women were booked; two-minute matches, little to no mic time, storylines and segments that they found demeaning etc. They only returned the next year in the hopes that Total Divas and its mainstream press would encourage WWE to treat them slightly better.
- Nikki has also not been subtle about her dislike of the feud the sisters had with Paige in early 2015 - specifically the fact that they were made to mock her for her looks and their matches got barely any time.
- Nikki also voiced her unhappiness with how the feud Brie had against AJ Lee in late 2013 went. She felt it was bad booking that AJ would get to trash talk on the microphone, while Brie wouldn't get any mic time at all.
- Nikki wasn't happy with Ronda Rousey debuting right after the women's Royal Rumble, feeling it took away both from Asuka's win and the fact that they just had the first ever women's Rumble.
"It didn't need to happen like that."- According to Nikki, the first few segments after her 2014 heel turn are this. On a radio interview, she expressed disappointment at how her storyline with Brie was booked - sighing "at the end of the day, I don't write the show".
- Both of them hated the 2015 'Divas Revolution' storyline as much as everyone else. While feeling no ill-will towards the women being called up from NXT (Nikki in fact loved working with Charlotte Flair), they hated the story framing them as holding the women's division back themselves - feeling it invalidated all the hard work of the women in the past, and the angle blamed them for women's wrestling being considered inferior; rather than the sheer amount of Executive Meddling that has been well-documented over the years. Nikki admitted in their autobiography that she suffered a lot of Creator Breakdown during those months, having to constantly remind herself it was just a storyline.
- Deleted Role: They originally had a scene in Wedding Crashers that ended up cut. Brie can still be seen in the background during the ending however.
- Dyeing for Your Art: When they first started doing the twin model thing, Nikki had to darken her hair and do daily ab and cardio work-outs to match her body type with Brie's naturally thinner frame. Brie likewise had to grow her hair out longer.
- Dye Hard: Nikki is naturally brunette but was blonde in her youth and added blonde back into her hair in late 2014. In 2016 she went black.
- Executive Meddling:
- At the Diva Search audition they weren't in the finals because the higher-ups didn't want twins in the competition (in contrast to the 2004 Diva Search which featured twins Chandra and Julia Costello).
- The sisters are originally from San Diego but were billed from Scottsdale, Arizona because WWE decided that San Diego was associated with Rey Mysterio. They did however largely grow up in Scottsdale, and were only born in San Diego and lived their after high school.
- Their program with the Colons and Miz & Morrison was ended at WrestleMania 25 when management told them not to go to ringside for the Tag Team Championship unification match - as they'd be in the Diva battle royal later and they didn't want them going out twice.
- Brie's shocking twist of a heel turn was rumored to be because the E! Network wanted the twins back together in time for the second half of Season 3 to air.
- For WrestleMania 31, themselves, AJ Lee and Paige wanted to make their tag match bigger and more exciting - but were forced to tone things down by the agents.
- Fan Community Nickname: The Bella Army. Some of Nikki's fans also jokingly call themselves the Nick Knockersnote
- Friendship on the Set:
- Both twins were very close with Natalya, describing her as teaching them so much in the ring and they in turn taught her how to do "the Diva thing".
- Maryse lived on their couch for a few months and learned English from them. Brie referred to her as "our little Momo".
- Nikki and Kelly Kelly were best friends going back to developmental, and they loved the 2011 period when they were all feuding with her and Eve Torres.
- Brie says Melina was "like a sister to us", and they wanted to work together more. They also studied her style of wrestling for inspiration.
- Nikki referred to Paige as one of her favourite people to wrestle and, while she disliked the subject matter of their feud, she loved wrestling her all the same.
- Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted with Nikki anyway. As a heel she plays an Alpha Bitch in the ring, but is a lot bubblier and goofier out of character.
- God Never Said That: Colt Cabana claimed that the Bellas were only called up to TV because they threatened Vince McMahon that they would quit if they weren't put on the road immediately. In a 2012 interview with Diva Dirt after their WWE departure, they disputed the story, pointing out that Vince was unlikely to let two unknown Divas threaten him like that. And in their book Incomparable, they revealed that they were called up while Nikki was nursing a broken nose and two black eyes, so they were unprepared for the sudden debut.
- Hostility on the Set:
- In their autobiography, they didn't name names but they talk about being bullied in developmental by female wrestlers who weren't under contract but kept on to work with rookies - and these women would sometimes try to sabotage them by lying about when their call times were for shows in the hopes of making them late and therefore look unprofessional.
- There was a documented Twitter feud in 2013 between the Bellas and Maria Kanellis, based off a rumor that the Bellas tried to stop WWE from rehiring Maria (notably in a shoot interview the previous year, when asked about Maria, the sisters declined comment). Maria eventually publicly apologized to the Bellas on Twitter.
- Michelle McCool detailed a minor incident where she and the Bellas had to go to Wrestler's Court, based off something Victoria overheard Nikki say.
- While the reports of heat between AJ Lee and the Bellas were overblown, in their autobiography Incomparable, they confirmed there was some resulting from AJ's 'Pipe Bombshell' promo; the Bellas were legitimately offended by AJ going off script and saying something about "daddy issues"note that Brie felt was uncalled for. But they were able to talk things over backstage afterwards, and any of AJ's subsequent promos avoided mentioning that. Although it was rumored that Nikki's 2015 Take That! "we've seen you less than Brock Lesnar" was genuine - the twins spoke highly of AJ in the years after they'd left WWE; Nikki even saying a dream match for her would be teaming with AJ and Paige against the Four Horsewomen.
- Lying Creator: During their 2014 feud with each other, Brie said in a promo that their mother had an ultrasound of the two of them holding hands in the womb. When she appeared on Lilian Garcia's Making Their Way To The Ring Brie revealed that their mother couldn't afford an ultrasound and didn't know she was having twins until she went into labour.
- Making Use of the Twin Switch: Initially done in Brie's debut match, no less. According to the twins, sometimes when it was still only Brie on the main roster, Nikki would sometimes pretend to be her and go out and wrestle the match.
- Playing Against Type:
- Fans generally agree that Brie is more suited as a face and Nikki is more suited as a heel. Both twins have stated that they prefer being heels. The twins did however say they preferred being heels to their first face run, and Nikki has said that she enjoyed being a face when they turned back in 2013. 2016 marked the first time Nikki had ever been pushed as a face on her own.
- 2012's Team Teddy vs Team Johnny angle for WrestleMania marked the first (and to this date only) time that Brie was the heel against a face Nikki.
- Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
- A long standing rumor was that the mixed tag match at WrestleMania 29 was never planned to actually happen; just so the first episode of Total Divas could have the Drama Bomb of the match being cut.
- Another rumour is that Nikki's abrupt Divas' Championship win right before her and Brie's contracts expired in 2012 was an attempt to convince the Bellas to stay.
- Real Life Writes the Plot:
- The gimmick of one sister hiding under the ring while the other wrestled came about because Nikki had a broken nose, and this allowed her to still appear on TV in a limited way until it had healed enough for them to believably be identical.
- Brie chose to retire in 2016 upon the news that Daniel Bryan would be unable to wrestle again.
- Nikki's Divas' Championship win in 2014 was partly influenced by AJ Lee suffering through a neck injury and having to take time off (and she would return for a few weeks in 2015 before retiring for good). There were plans to properly write AJ off TV with a worked injury angle, but instead she just disappeared after her and Nikki's rematch at TLC.
- Nikki's 2019 retirement owed to the disclosure that a cyst had been found in her brain (on top of a series of neck injuries dating to 2017).
- Reality Subtext:
- A rumoured example. Nikki cut a promo on AJ saying she had been around less than Brock Lesnar, which was rumored to be her breaking Kayfabe at AJ's lack of interest in the division. AJ had taken several months off prior to returning just in time for WrestleMania, and had long stopped working house shows beforehand.
- Most of Carmella's taunts to Nikki in 2016 about being Never a Self-Made Woman echoes a lot of the criticisms she faced from fans during her title reign - that she only owed her spot to John Cena.
- Romance on the Set: Brie is married to Daniel Bryan, and Nikki was engaged to John Cena. Nikki had previously dated Dolph Ziggler for a while. Nikki is now married to Dancing with the Stars partner Artem Chigvintsev, whom she has a son with.
- Screwed by the Network: Brie was getting rather surprisingly good reactions during her feud with Stephanie McMahon. While the initial segments of her feud with Nikki were badly received, fans still remained at her side. Suddenly Brie made a random heel turn for no reason to make up with Nikki again - and eventually ended up as little more than the designated Jobber for her sisters' challengers. Despite getting to main event Raw twice in 2014 she did not receive a single Divas' Championship match or get any kind of push after Nikki won the title. Even detractors of the twins felt Brie had been dealt a rough blow.
- Throw It In!:
- According to the twins, Vince McMahon once apparently witnessed them bickering at each other backstage. Afterwards he would often ask them "can you two just be the Bellas" for random backstage segments and they would start improvising arguments on-screen.
- Brie revealed later that the segment where she challenged Stephanie McMahon to a match at SummerSlam was completely improvised; Stephanie was apparently so busy throughout the night that they had no time to rehearse what would be said, and they had to just wing it.
- What Could Have Been:
- They were apparently always asking management to put them together with Melina. They teamed together in a couple of throwaway tag matches but nothing came of it.
- Nikki claims she pitched numerous ideas for the sisters' feud with each other but they were all shot down. She also wasn't subtle about how annoyed she was with the resulting segments.
"At the end of the day, I don't write the show..."- According to reports, Nikki wasn't supposed to return from her neck surgery until at least October of 2016, but due to Eva Marie getting suspended for violating the Wellness Policy, Nikki returned early to take her place in a six women tag team match. She ended up having to take time off in 2017 because of more neck issues, and eventually announced a retirement for good in 2019 upon discovering a cyst in her brain.
- It was rumored that if Nikki was unavailable for the Evolution PPV, then Sasha Banks would be the one to face Ronda Rousey in the main event.
- Nikki floated around the idea of working as part of WWE creative team to help book the women's matches in 2020.
- Writer Revolt: The infamous 30-second tag match (the Bellas vs Paige and Emma) that led to the birth of the 'Give Divas a Chance' movement came about because the initial segment was given eight minutes, but got cut down to five and eventually two. All the women involved felt insulted (and Brie just the week before had given an interview where she said if she were down at NXT, she would rather stay there than move up to the main roster because of how little time the women were given) and made it a Squash Match.
General Trivia:
- Nikki is the older twin, by 16 minutes.
- The twins have actually used the switch in real life. Once apparently one twin wanted to break up with her boyfriend but couldn't go through with it - so she got the other sister to do it pretending to be her.
- Although it was meant to be just Brie wrestling initially in 2008, sometimes Nikki would go out there pretending to be her so she could wrestle the match instead. This creates a Rewatch Bonus for those who can tell them apart.
- Brie's bear claws tattoo is a tribute to a boyfriend of hers that passed away.
