Wrestling / Bella Twins

aka: Brie Bella

Nikki (left) and Brie (right).

"You can look, but you can't touch!"

Brianna Monique Danielson (nee Garcia-Colace) and Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace (born on November 21, 1983) are better known as WWE Divas Brie and Nikki Bella, commonly known as The Bella Twins. They are best known for their use of "Twin Magic," in which they switch places to fool their opponents. Each Bella has held the WWE Divas' Championship, Brie once and Nikki twice. In addition to their WWE careers, they are notable for starring in Total Divas.

Brie took an extended break from wrestling in 2016 to start a family with her husband, Bryan Danielson, while Nikki got engaged to John Cena before they split up in April 2018. As of 2019, both twins have retired from wrestling.

That Other Wiki has a rundown of their career.

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Tropes associated with the Bella Twins:

Tropes Applying to Both Brie And Nikki

• Aborted Arc:
  • When they first split up and feuded with each other, they made up for no reason just in time for the 25 Diva battle royal and were then traded to Raw - with no mention of their feud.
  • Again when Nikki turned heel on NXT, Brie was annoyed with Nikki's heelish ways but nothing really came of it (though Nikki did grudgingly shake AJ's hand after teaming with her, so one could count that as an official face turn).
  • The storyline between themselves and Daniel Bryan was ordered to be ended by the network, for fear it was heading in a non-PG direction. Thus Gail Kim was retconned into being Bryan's girlfriend of six months. Their feud with her never had much of a resolution and was completely dropped when Brie became Divas' Champion.
  • The angle involving Nikki's betrayal of Brie in 2014 never got a payoff. What most people expected to happen was that after Brie's thirty days as Nikki's personal assistant were up (a stipulation in a match Brie lost) that Brie would turn on Nikki and either branch off on her own or go after Nikki's Divas' Title. Neither one happened.
  • Even during their 2014 feud, there was a segment where Nikki demanded that she wanted the Bella name, suggesting that they were going to have a match to determine who got to keep control of the Bella brand. This was completely forgotten afterwards.
• Alpha Bitches: Since turning heel in early 2011, they began acting like prima donnas. They also guard their presumed status "heads of the divas division" jealously, especially Nikki. Their antagonism toward anyone almost always comes back to fear of losing this supposed spot to someone else, be they NXT rookies, the current Divas's Champion, or a Wrestling Monster like Kharma
• Always Identical Twins: Played straight until Nikki underwent breast implant surgery in 2012. They used Twin Magic to switch places during a match when the referee is not looking, and they wore the same gear early in their careers, making it more difficult for their opponents and referees to tell which twin is which.
• Ass Kicks You: The Bella Twins have a move known as the Double Booty Shake, which has them rubbing their asses against their opponents' heads.
• Beta Bitch: When one sister held the Divas' title, the other sister became this. Due to Nikki having a longer title reign the second time around, Brie ultimately spent more screen time in this role.
• Bilingual Bonus: Bella means "beautiful" in Spanish, "sweetheart" in Italian, and "wars" in Latin.
• Bullying a Dragon: Made fun of the pregnant Kharma.
• Cain and Abel:
  • They split and feuded with each other briefly in 2009 for an all-female version of this trope, but that was dropped when they were drafted to Raw.
  • It happened again when they sided with opposite teams going into WrestleMania 28 and they brawled at ringside.
  • And again at WrestleMania 30; they initially worked together in the Vickie Guerrero Invitational match, but eventually turned on each other.
  • And again when Nikki apparently bought into Stephanie's words about Brie having abandoned her and stolen the spotlight from her, and attacked Brie at SummerSlam.
• Catfight:
  • Most memorably with Gail Kim. According to Gail, the office loved their first one so much that they were given two more.
  • They had one with each other on ECW, again at WrestleMania 28 and many times during their feud.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • From around Mid-2014, Brie favored red outfits (much like her husband), while Nikki wore black and has blonde streaks. Ever since they both turned heel in 2014, they often wear the same colored outfits.
  • When they debuted in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 Brie wore blue while Nikki wore red. In SVR 2011, Nikki wore a silver top with dark blue jeans while Brie wore a black top with green jeans.
• The Ditz: Both of them more so in their first heel run.
• Divergent Character Evolution: It's become much easier to tell them apart since their face turn in 2013. Their wrestling styles switch up as well, as Brie went towards a quick, strike-based moveset and Nikki went for a strength and power-based moveset.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": On Total Divas the name Bella is used as if it's their real last name - whereas other talent gets called by their real names. That being said, Bryan did use Brie's real last name when he proposed to her. John Cena likewise referred to Nikki as 'Stephanie Nicole' when he proposed - the first time Nikki had ever had her true first name acknowledged. In their book, it was clarified that her parents wanted to name her after two of their babysitters but didn't like how 'Nicole Stephanie' sounded - so they just named her 'Stephanie Nicole' and always called her Nicole anyway.
• Enemy Mine: With the rest of the Total Divas cast initially when A.J. Lee cut her promo against them. It eventually lead to a Heel–Face Turn for the twins.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They clearly didn't approve of Eve Torres's plot to use John Cena like she did with Zack Ryder. Now Hilarious in Hindsight with Nikki Bella's public relationship with Cena.
• Evil Is Petty: Their primary heel tactic amounts to making fun of their foe, often just because the target can't do anything in return.
• Face–Heel Revolving Door: Good lord in 2015. The twins randomly acted like faces after Naomi's heel turn, went back to being heels when Paige returned, and Team Bella would appear as faces and heels at randomly during the Divas Revolution storyline - usually heels if they were against PCB and faces against Team BAD.
• Face–Heel Turn: After finding out that Daniel Bryan had been dating Gail Kim for six months and only been with them out of pity since they had nothing to do after Raw stopped having Guest Hosts.
• Fanservice Pack: Their initial ring gear was very modest (noted under Token Wholesome below). In 2011 they abruptly added a Spy Catsuit inspired outfit to the proceedings - and then shortened the legs of it.
• Fire-Forged Friends: After A.J. Lee's pipe bombshell promo, the Bellas grudgingly sided with the rest of the Total Divas cast, gradually turning face. By the time Survivor Series came around, they were all united against AJ and her team. If one looks at the latter season 2 episodes of the show, it seems they've become this in real life, too.
• Girly Bruiser: In their 2012 shoot interview they stated that this was their intention with their style of wrestling.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: While their personalities are similar and most of the time they get along, Total Divas reveals that Brie and Nikki lean towards the Smart Sister and the Pretty Sister, respectively, and the differences in their views can cause friction between them.
• Heel–Face Turn: A.J. Lee's promo on the Total Divas cast gradually turned the Bellas and Eva Marie face as they united with Natalya, JoJo, and The Funkadactyls. Brie's engagement with Daniel Bryan was then acknowledged on screen, solidifying the turn.
• Hidden Depths: Total Divas revealed more of the Bellas' personalities and their personal lives. For example, in addition to being an athlete and wrestler, Nikki is apparently a qualified real-estate agent.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Used Twin Magic (switching while ref has his back turned) in their Divas Championship match against Layla. This didn't turn out so great as Layla was able to counter the fresh Bella's move and win the Divas Title.
• Identical Twin ID Tag:
  • From 2008-2012 you could only tell who was who if their hemline was low enough to reveal Brie's tattoo or if they spoke, since Brie has a deeper voice than Nikki. ^note  This isn't entirely true. The Twins never looked exactly alike as there are subtle differences between their facial structures that a very good eye could spot such as Nikki having a square jawline, a thinner, more pronounced chin and thinner lips with Brie having smaller eyes, a slightly larger nose, a warmer smile and a higher brow but this is mostly only noticeable in stills, not on TV. They actually took steps to avoid this as for a while Brie had bangs but wore hair extensions on TV to match her sister. Since leaving WWE in 2012, Nikki got a boob job, which makes telling them apart a bit easier since their return in 2013. Since turning face, they've abandoned Twin Magic altogether and wear different attires when wrestling. Nikki typically wears a t-shirt and baseball cap. They've even developed slightly different wrestling styles, Brie with a more aerial offence and Nikki with more power. Now they look less like twins and more like sisters, if that makes sense.
  • When the twins attempted to use the switch again in 2015, it was remarkably obvious that they were wearing different outfits.
  • Nikki says that when they were first called up to TV, she had a broken nose and black eyes - requiring lots of ice and make-up to help her match Brie. Additionally she would have a monitor under the ring to make sure that if Brie's outfit got altered in any way during the match (say if the flower in her hair came out) that she would have to make hers match.
• Latino Is Brown: The Bellas recall getting turned down to be put in a Spicy Latina stable with Melina because, as mixed Italian and Mexican, they lack the 'mestizo' features to be coded as Latina characters. A magazine interview with The Funkadactyls referred to the Bellas as "white girls".
• Meaningful Name: "Bella Twins" works well for WWE Divas, as it means "beautiful twins" but with the Latin "war" meaning mentioned under Bilingual Bonus, it also reflects how WWE will often refer to their wrestlers with words like "warriors."
• Ms. Fanservice: Their stripperific outfits and sexy/flirty mannerisms are nothing new to the Divas division, but the Bellas stood out as fanservice-y even in a cast full of Ms. Fanservices because of their old entrance, which included them showing off their asses at the cameras and the crowd set to music aptly titled "You Can Look (But You Can't Touch)".
• Mythology Gag: Nikki said "Brie is a man" on the first Jerry Springer segment she and Brie appeared in. A possible nod to the one of the ways they can be told apart - Brie has a deeper voice.
• Older Than They Look: If one wasn't aware of how long they've been in the company, it would be difficult to tell that they're both in their thirties.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Brie and Nikki Bella's real names are Brianna Monique and Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace, but they're called by their ring-names even on the reality show Total Divas. To be fair, Total Divas also treats several other wrestlers' ring-names as their real names (probably in attempt to avoid confusing the viewers who don't know the wrestlers's real names), "Brie" and "Nikki" are shorthands for Brianna and Nicole respectively.
• Polar Opposite Twins: As shown on Total Divas. Brie is a vegan and hippie at heart, being very conservative (clothing and lifestyle wise, anyway), and responsible. Nikki meanwhile loves expensive clothes and wines and deserts, being far more impulsive and passionate. Ironically Brie is the harder drinker of the two. In the ring, they have very different move sets as well; Brie opting for a lot of kicks, aerial offence and mat-based grappling. Nikki meanwhile utilises a lot of power moves with only mild high flying.
• Power Trio: Became this with Alicia Fox once she joined them, forming Team Bella. It came back to bite them in the butt when Stephanie McMahon brought up the three strongest women's wrestlers from developmental and assigned them to help Team Bella's three greatest threats to make two new, powerful trios who wasted no time in going after Team Bella.
• Put on a Bus: Left in late April of 2012 due to their contracts being up and their opting not to renew them. In kayfabe, they were said to have been fired by Eve Torres after losing a Triple Threat match against Layla for the Divas's Championship They returned nearly a year later.
• Rogues Gallery: Gail Kim, The Funkadactyls, Kelly Kelly, and Kaitlyn. A.J. Lee and Eve Torres can be added to the list as well, AJ having been a rival and Kick the Dog opponent since NXT 3 and Eve having been the one who used her influence with John Laurinaitis to (temporarily) fire the twins in an Evil Versus Evil twist. Paige has become a big enemy and was later joined by Becky Lynch and Charlotte, with Naomi, Sasha Banks, and Tamina Snuka getting in the mix, to dethrone the Bellas (aided by Alicia Fox) from the top of the Divas division and take Nikki's second Divas Championship (which Charlotte eventually did).
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: When it comes to promos with each other (and the possibility of things getting physical) the sisters are like this. Brie will often just wear casual pants and a t-shirt while Nikki wears cocktail dresses and high heels.
• Shout-Out: Both sisters have signature moves that are a nod to their respective men. Brie uses a running knee (to an opponent across the bottom rope) as a nod to Daniel Bryan's flying knee and has full-out adopted her husband's "YES!" Lock into her moveset. Nikki's finisher involves hoisting the opponent over her shoulders and taunting like John Cena's Attitude Adjustment does. In 2016 Nikki went the full hog and adopted her own version of John's STF - titling it the Fearless Lock.
• Sibling Team: The majority of the time, the Bellas are a tag team, though they have split up and even feuded with each other on occasion.
• Sibling Triangle: Two, Carlito and Primo for Brie on Smackdown, and both twins for Daniel Bryan on Raw. Both situations ended poorly. They were teasing a third with Alberto Del Rio, but nothing came out of it due to them leaving WWE.
• Spicy Latinas: Downplayed as their Hispanic heritage is mostly ignored in favour of their Italian roots. They fit the bill a little more as heels, the "hot tempered" part at least.
• Spy Catsuit: Added a couple of these to their attire around 2011-ish.
• Tag Team Twins: Complete with Twin Switch until turning face in 2013.
• Token Wholesome: The twins admitted this in their 2012 Shoot Interview. They said that when they first appeared in WWE, they tried very hard to preserve PG. Nikki says "we were like the G girls", saying that they didn't want to alienate their kid fans. Their attire back then was considerably more modest - their tops concealed all cleavage and underboob while their pants had lots of ruffles. They became Hotter and Sexier after their heel turn - even wrestling in catsuits for a time.
• Troll: They both seem to enjoy saying and doing things without provocation, just to get under other Divas' skin.
• Tsundere:
  • Nikki is a Type A where the majority of people see her tsuntsun side while John (and sometimes Brie) see her deredere side.
  • Brie is a Type B where she is mostly deredere but does have a bitchy side.
• Wild Card: Post WrestleMania 31, Nikki and Brie played the faces in their feud with Naomi and Tamina but the heels in their feud with Paige. When the Divas Revolution storyline happened, PCB were the faces and BAD were the heels. The Bellas and Alicia Fox essentially played either role depending on which team they were wrestling.
• Wrestling Family: Due to being twin sisters who work together as wrestlers. Through Brie's marriage to Daniel Bryan, he is now a part of the family as well. They're also part of the Laurinaitis family, with their mother now married to Johnny Ace himself.

Tropes Applying To Brie Only

• 10-Minute Retirement: Brie retired after a tag team match at Wrestlemania 32. However, she did return to compete in the first ever women’s royal rumble in 2018.
• Alliterative Name: Brie Bella.
• Amazonian Beauty: Though thinner than her sister, her abs are more toned. Nikki had to do intense workouts when they were trying to look identical - to match.
• Arch-Enemy: As a face, she saw Stephanie McMahon as this, what with Brie's husband's beef with The Authority and Stephanie tormenting Nikki to punish Brie. Eventually, Nikki pulled a Face–Heel Turn and the Bellas became each other's archenemies. After a brief feud including Nikki wishing Brie had died in the womb... they became loving sisters again and Brie's antagonistic relationship with both were forgotten.
• Ascended Meme: 'Brie Mode' was a nickname for Brie when she gets too drunk. She ended up making it a catchphrase, naming a move after it and eventually getting it on a t-shirt. Plenty of Brie Mode signs followed suit.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Brie to AJ Lee at the 2014 Survivor Series, also counting as a Distraction Kiss - as it helped Nikki win her match. AJ has had Les Yay with numerous opponents but this was the first time one of them actually kissed her.
• Big Brother Instinct: Brie has protected Nikki from unnecessary conflict several times:
  • The most notable instance was Nikki's match against Tamina Snuka on November 11, 2013. Nikki received a headbutt from A.J. Lee while resting on a rope, Brie immediately attacked AJ, but was slammed into the side of the ring. Nikki is left unable to defend herself and loses the match, AJ skips around the ring to then get drop kicked in the face by Brie, AJ rolls out of the ring, and Tamina lifts Brie onto her shoulder, but Brie slips out of it and drop kicks Tamina in the face and falls out of the ring. Brie then rushes to Nikki, who is still on the floor, and stands by her protectively.◊
  • Brie actually threw AJ Lee off Nikki when they — the twins themselves — were feuding.
  • Averted one time Brie left Nikki to get attacked by Kharma. Nikki forgave Brie because she admitted she would have done the exact same thing.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: A positive example. Brie started using her husband's "yes!" chant from 2014 onwards.
• The Bus Came Back: Showed up for the 25th anniversary of Raw and as a surprise entrant of the Royal Rumble in late January 2018, after having taken a break from wrestling and been absent onscreen since WrestleMania 2016.
• Demoted to Extra: Ever since the Bellas reunited in late 2014, Brie mostly acted as her sister's manager, occassionally wrestled in tag team bouts with only a handful of mostly meaningless singles matches.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Looked to be in complete shock and disbelief by Nikki eliminating her after they worked together to eliminate several other entrants at the 2018 Royal Rumble. Considering her and Nikki's history though, really she should've seen it coming... or maybe she just thought Nikki would wait until they'd already eliminated everyone else before turning on each other.
• Five Moves of Doom: Flying clothesline, two dropkicks, running knee to an opponent lying at the middle rope, missile dropkick, Bella Buster (also known as an X-Factor).

• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She's the girly girl to Nikki's tomboy but is often seen dressed in casual clothes when out of ring gear, and is the harder drinker of the sisters.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Brie once referred to Natalya as "that powerful wench".
• Granola Girl: In real life. She borders on Soapbox Sadie when she's at her worst.
• Happily Married: To Daniel Bryan.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: So much. She calls it 'Brie Mode'.
• Humiliation Conga: Rare instance where the hero gets one, and it's a doozy. After months of harassment from her boss Stephanie, Brie finally gets a match with her, only to get knocked out and pinned because her sister turned on her, with Stephanie gloating over a defeated Brie. If that wasn't bad enough, Nikki disowned her, beat Brie down multiple times, and eventually won a match where Brie had to be Nikki's personal assistant for a month. Not a great couple months!
• Irony: In the match where Brie won the title. Eve Torres was feeling clever and got the ref to draw an X on Nikki's hand so they couldn't switch. They attempted the switch anyway and the distraction caused by the ref checking Nikki's hand was enough for Brie to capitalize and win the title.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When The Authority couldn't touch her after she quit, they began dishing out Revenge by Proxy on the still-hired Nikki. Mostly reversed when Brie filed criminal charges against Stephanie McMahon for assaulting her at a match which Brie had been attending as a fan to show support for Nikki, then forced Stephanie to agree to stop targeting Nikki and to re-hire Brie (as well as having a match against Brie at SummerSlam so that Brie can get a little revenge) in exchange for the charges being dropped. Brie still couldn't save Daniel's championship, but probably the only reason she didn't demand that Stephanie give Daniel another title shot is that he was still recovering from injuries.
• Precious Puppy: Brie's dog Josie.
• Precision F-Strike: Brie's use of the word 'bitch' to Stephanie.
• Put on a Bus: WrestleMania 32 ended up being Brie's final in-ring appearance as a full-time performer, as she took an extended break from in-ring competition shortly afterwards.
• Revenge by Proxy: After Brie foiled Stephanie McMahon's Evil Plan and, worst of all, slapped her, Stephanie turned her wrath upon poor Nikki since she couldn't go after Brie herself (as Brie had quit). She punished Nikki by putting her in matches that were nigh-impossible for Nikki to win, including the first-ever four-on-one Divas's match in the WWE, with Nikki inevitably losing and getting beaten down by the other Divas. It was strongly implied that Stephanie was doing this to break Nikki's spirit and make her quit, too.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Non-fatal variation. Brie opted to quit her job at the WWE so that Stephanie McMahon wouldn't be able to use Brie's job as leverage to strong-arm Daniel into giving up his hard-won WWE World Heavyweight Championship to keep his wife employed. Unfortunately, Stephanie and Triple H just decided to officially strip Daniel of the title anyway, making Brie's sacrifice pointless. Worse, Stephanie turned to exacting revenge on Nikki, who was still employed by WWE, by putting her in unfair matches.
• Taking a Third Option: Brie, faced with the dilemma of either be fired or see her husband be stripped of his WWE World Heavyweight title, chose to quit instead.
• Thicker Than Water: Generally is quite devoted and forgiving towards her twin, even when Nikki really doesn't deserve it. It turns into a case of Extreme Doormat with the resolution of their 2014 feud, where Nikki betrayed her, heaped verbal abuse on her, and then abused her power over Brie when Brie was forced to be her assistant... only for Brie to forgive Nikki offscreen because they are sisters and serve as her loyal Dragon and Beta Bitch for the next two years.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Girly Girl to Nikki's Tomboy. Ever since they turned face in 2013, Brie tends to wear outfits with ruffles on them, wears her hair in a girlier style, and wrestles a more aerial based offense with slaps and hair-pulls. Ironic, considering that she has a deeper voice and is a harder drinker than her sister.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Brie is not afraid of laying her hands on her boss if she threatens her husband.
• You Go, Girl!: A meta example: Brie's feud with Stephanie McMahon was treated with a degree of focus and prominence you would expect of a feud between high-tier Superstars instead of Divas. It was even the main story of the 07/28/2014 edition of RAW, with Brie's confrontation with Stephanie—including Stephanie agreeing to a SummerSlam match with Brie—closing out the show! Again, this amount of attention is almost never given to Diva feuds.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She and Nikki teamed up to eliminate several competitors at the Royal Rumble together, only for Nikki to abruptly eliminate Brie herself before Asuka. Granted, even had they worked together to successfully take Asuka out, one of them had to turn on the other eventually, and Brie was an easy target when Nikki took advantage, but Brie still seemed surprised Nikki would do that to her.

Tropes Applying To Nikki Only

• A-Cup Angst: Nikki disliked her bust size so much she got a boob-job. She said in an interview that she was initially happy with her figure but didn't like how things were starting to "sag" as she approached 30.
• Action Fashionista: Nikki is very passionate about clothes, shoes and handbags.
• All Women Are Lustful: Total Divas has revealed Nikki to be delightfully pervy, explaining in vivid detail how she enjoys watching the mirror above her and John Cena's bed and wearing a naughty nurse outfit when he was injured.
• All Women Love Shoes: She has a collection of expensive heels.
• Amazonian Beauty: While rehabbing her knee injury, she got into body building and developed a more muscular frame than Brie. In a list of top 25 best abs in WWE history out of male and female Superstars, Nikki ranked number 15. Not that it detracts from her sexiness - most of her Instagram photos show her flexing in various Fanservice poses.
• Arch-Enemy: Paige, AJ Lee and when they're feuding, Brie herself. Eventually, Nikki pulled a Face–Heel Turn and the Bellas became each other's archenemies. After a brief feud including Nikki wishing Brie had died in the womb... they became loving sisters again. Carmella has also joined Nikki's Rogues Gallery.
• Awesome, but Impractical: More like "Mildly interesting, but very unsafe looking," Nikki's Rack Attack is a pretty nice move, but it doesn't look even remotely painful to the recipient. Nikki on the other hand has received a torn hamstring and bulging discs in her neck that went untreated for most of 2015, eventually requiring career threatening neck surgery in January 2016. She reworked the move with Bryan's help heading into her comeback in the fall, and the final product of Rack Attack 2.0 is now a TKO.
• Bitch Slap: When Jerry Lawler tries to stop Nikki from attacking Brie, she smacks him in the face...and he backs off.
• Conspicuous Consumption: "If a vegetable merged with another vegetable to form a once in a lifetime vegetable for $10,000, Brie you would buy that vegetable" — justifying purchase of a $10,000 purse.
• Double Entendre: Nikki's original finisher is called The Rack Attack - both a reference to her bigger boobs than Brie's and the fact that it's done from a Torture Rack.
• Easily Forgiven: This seems to be the case with Brie willingly assisting Nikki in her Divas Title match against A.J. Lee at Survivor Series 2014 even after two months of Nikki and Brie's bitter feud with each other.
• Effortless Amazonian Lift: She picked up Tyler Breeze (who weighs 210 pounds, Nikki weighs around 120) for the Rack Attack 2.0. And held him for several seconds before dropping him.
• Evil Twin:
  • Nikki plays this role whenever the sisters are pit against each other. First in 2009 briefly, then on NXT season 3, and in 2014. The last case showed how obvious this is, as the Bellas had ended their first run in WWE and started their second run back as heels, but as soon as the twins turned back face with the cast of Total Divas, fans were already speculating when Nikki would turn heel on Brie — and never the other way around. Sure enough…
  • Subverted when Nikki finally got to be the "good" twin in 2011 when she was on Team Teddy going into WrestleMania 28 with Brie on Team Johnny. Also at WrestleMania 30 it was Brie who attacked Nikki first, having realized that they were opponents in a Divas Championship match.
• Face/Heel Double-Turn: After Eva Marie got suspended for violating the Wellness Policy, her replacement in the 6-woman tag match at SummerSlam was Nikki, who returned after a 10 month hiatus following a neck injury. Since Nikki received a face reaction throughout the match despite being heel and Carmella had been getting lukewarm reactions from the main roster crowds since being called up, Carmella attacked Nikki unprovoked during two separate interviews, swapping their roles.
• Face–Heel Turn: Nikki turned heel again on August 17, 2014 at SummerSlam when she came to the ring for Brie's match against Stephanie, leading the audience to assume that she was there to help Brie against Stephanie and Triple H. She ended up attacking Brie instead, then walked away and let Stephanie win the match. While she seemed not without remorse at the time, the promos after took a much darker uglier turn.
• Finishing Move: The Rack Attack, a variation of an Argentine backbreaker. It's now been replaced by the TKO.
• Five Moves of Doom: Clothesline, dropkick, facebuster to the knee, back body drop, The Rack Attack. Her powerhouse style moveset has expanded and occasionally includes Alabama slam, hammerlock front-powerslam, and Spinebuster.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Her neck, twice.
  • The original version of the Rack Attack involved dropping on her knees with the full weight of another person on her shoulders. This gradually caused an injury in a manner similar to Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold's spinal issues from their finishers.
  • In the build up to Wrestlemania 33, she mistimed a spear on Tyler Breeze and hit him head first, jamming her neck again. After Wrestlemania she didn't wrestle again until the Royal Rumble.
• Girliness Upgrade: Inverted, as she opted for a more tomboyish looking ring gear to tell her apart from Brie, who played this straight by wearing her hair in a girlier style and favouring ruffles on her gear.
• Girlish Pigtails: For a while, Nikki opted for this hairstyle more often to establish the differences between them, but nowadays it's usually worn down.
• Good Is Not Soft: Really the deal with Nikki as a face. She has a gleaming smile, high fives and kisses fans, and will help her team mates out, but is still very feisty and aggressive.
• Hair Flip: If Nikki won a match, she would often flip her hair back when celebrating the cover. Brie didn't do this, because she usually wore a hair band.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Nikki turned heel on NXT season 3 but was still a face when appearing on Raw and Smackdown.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard / Villain Ball: She and Brie successfully eliminate all but themselves and Asuka from the Royal Rumble. Nikki chooses to use the element of surprise to eliminate Brie first before taking Asuka on herself - which ended up costing her as without backup, Asuka (of course) eliminated her.
• Hotter and Sexier: When she first turned heel in 2009. This led to her accidentally breaking PG, as described at Parent Service.
• I Have No Son!: "You might say I lost a sister - but I never really had one" Doubles as a very big Kick the Dog moment.
• In the End, You Are on Your Own: Nikki had to wrestle solo, in matches that were increasingly stacked against her, after Brie quit. Stephanie McMahon tried to stir up feelings of resentment and abandonment in Nikki towards Brie in hopes of turning the sisters against each other. For awhile, it looked like it hadn't worked, but then Nikki betrayed and attacked Brie at SummerSlam.
• Irony:
  • Nikki dubbed herself 'Fearless Nikki' while she was getting persecuted by Stephanie. This led to her eventually giving in and siding with The Authority.
  • Nikki won the WWE Divas Championship twice. The first time, she had it for six days in what is the second-shortest Divas Championship reign in the company's history, beat only by Jillian Hall's four-minute reign. The second time Nikki was champion, she went on to hold it for 301 days, breaking A.J. Lee's 295 day record for longest-reigning Divas Champion. Talk about a turnaround! And right before she lost her first title to Layla, she'd even cut a promo saying she'd be the longest reigning champion in history.
• It's All About Me: Nikki's Face–Heel Turn after SummerSlam 2014.
• The Lad-ette: Nikki is quite close in real life. She liked video games growing up, is a Big Eater, works out, and loves wine.
• The Leader: Of Team Bella, with her sister and Alicia Fox as her eager henchwomen.
• Naughty Nurse Outfit: Dressed up in one to help her take care of John Cena while he was injured.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: In 2016 and 2017 she spent a lot of time facing these accusations first from Carmella and then from Natalya that all her achievements came from her relationship with John Cena.
• Parent Service: An accidental example. When Nikki went out with The Miz and John Morrison she made some sexy gestures...but forgot that their entrance was in slow-motion. And that WWE is a PG show.
• Pungeon Master: Nikki has thrown a few puns based off her name out there. She held a 'Bellabration' to celebrate clocking the longest Divas' Championship reign, and referred to Brie (when she became Nikki's assistant) as her "Cinder-bella".
• Punny Name: Her finisher is the Rack Attack, named of course because it is a Torture Rack drop Backbreaker.
• Shout-Out: The socks Nikki wears as part of her gear is a nod to her previous soccer experience.
• Sent Into Hiding: When they debuted, debuted, it was only Brie Bella who officially showed up. During matches when she was losing, she'd crawl under the ring and Nikki would come out to finish the match.
• Sore Loser: On Total Divas, Nikki didn't take losing to John Cena in their friendly competition of Go Kart Racing, Skeeball, and Beer Pong too well, throwing the last cup of beer on Cena after the Beer Pong loss.
• Squash Match: At the 2014 Survivor Series, Nikki defeated Diva's Champion A.J. Lee in 35 seconds for the title, with the help of Brie planting a Kiss of Distraction on AJ.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Tomboy to Brie's Girly Girl. Nikki is more athletic than Brie, a lover of video games and also has a higher constitution when it comes to alcohol. Since their face turn, Nikki wears a baseball cap and t-shirt giving her a more casual/tomboyish look and wrestles a more power-based offense.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: That being said, Nikki still likes wearing pink and getting dolled up. She's actually more likely to dress up more girly than Brie outside of the ring.
• Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Nikki's trademark accessory since late 2013.
• Took a Level in Badass: Initially presented as someone who could only get underdog wins or cheating via switching with Brie - as well as having a meagre six-day title reign. She ended up becoming the top heel of the women's division, adding a lot of power moves to her arsenal and even throwing forearms capable of knocking people out. She ended up the longest reigning Divas' Champion, was the first main roster woman to take Charlotte Flair to her limit and competed in Falls Count Anywhere and No DQ matches.
• Underwear of Power: Nikki's booty shorts seem more like this.
• Unnecessary Roughness: In some of the promos after Nikki's heel turn. In one she hit Brie with a microphone by throwing it at her. She also attacked her with a high heeled shoe - which busted Brie's leg open in real life.
• Visual Pun: On Nikki's first night after her Summerslam heel turn, one of her high heels falls off as she's walking down the ramp.
• Worked Shoot: When Nikki won the title off Beth Phoenix. Beth's ankle injury was played up as legit and Nikki and Beth very obviously communicated when Beth was getting checked out - making it look like they were improvising the finish due to her injury. But nope the injury was just a work.

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