Nikki Bella faced a unique challenge at Survivor Series, and it wasn’t just her opponent.
The Hall of Famer challenged Stephanie Vaquer for the WWE Women’s World Championship on Saturday, but the match was placed in a notoriously difficult position on the card: immediately following John Cena’s emotional loss to Dominik Mysterio and right before the highly anticipated Men’s WarGames match.
Speaking on the Nikki & Brie Show, Bella admitted she knew they were in a tough spot with limited time, which required her to be precise with her character work. specifically, WWE producers emphasized that she needed to ensure the crowd recognized her as the villain.
“For me, the one thing that I was told was, ‘We need super heelish.’ What they realized going into it was, if you didn’t watch the past few weeks, you would have no idea that I was a heel. They were afraid that I might go out and be a babyface,” Bella said.
Bella noted that she hadn’t worked as a heel since before her neck surgery years ago, forcing her to make adjustments on the fly. To get into the right headspace, she focused on projecting “bad bitch energy.”
“At the end of the day, it’s all about confidence… Go as slow as you want doing your walk. You own it,” she added.
Ultimately, Stephanie Vaquer retained her title in the bout, continuing her reign as champion.
