Nikki Bella is giving more insight about her match against WWE Intercontinental Women’s Champion Becky Lynch at Clash in Paris. The WWE Hall of Famer revealed how the match wasn’t originally set for the PLE.
Nikki Bella Says Match Was Set For RAW
On the latest episode of The Nikki & Brie Show, Nikki spoke about how jet lag proved to be a problem while training for her match against Becky. She also shared that the match was originally going to be on Raw, though that was before Naomi relinquished the WWE Women’s World Title on the August 18 episode of Raw, due to her pregnancy. She said:
“So from Birmingham until I arrived in Paris, I didn’t go home because I knew, okay, by the time I go [from] England back to [San Francisco International Airport], then have to do SFO back to Paris, I would really be home for two days, crazy jet lagged and to prepare for a match that originally was going to be on Raw, that got moved to the PLE. I’m like, I have to stay overseas and just prep, kick the jet lag out.” (h/t: F4Wonline)
Before Naomi’s announcement, she was originally going to be defending her title against Stephanie Vaquer. It was announced earlier this week that Vaquer and IYO SKY will be facing each other at Wrestlepalooza on September 20 to crown a new champion.
The Bella Twin faced some scrutiny on social media due to their match even being on the Clash in Paris card because Vaquer was left off. People also called out the match because of botches, and one X user even said that Nikki gave Becky the most “embarrassing match of her career.” She said:
“This is a part of life and coming back. Things don’t happen overnight. And if you look at other comebacks, like, I’m not here to do a one-off and go to the [Performance Center] and train the same match for five hours every day to perform that 15 minutes that I just put 30 hours in. I’m doing it as I have so much passion and love for this business. And that’s why I was like, I’m not going to let people take away of how much fun I had out there and how I loved every second. I was like in heaven. Like, I truly love wrestling. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m traveling every week.”
After the Clash in Paris event, Nikki thanked the Bella Army on X as well as the Paris crowd, even the ones who booed at her. What’s next for Nikki? Well, her feud with Becky is pretty much over now that Lynch is part of her husband’s stable, The Vision, and Lynch has been targeting CM Punk as of late. One thing that Nikki has spoken about recently is how she would like to capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles with her twin sister, Brie. She believes that WWE is more open to her sister coming back to the promotion. Time will tell.
