On Tuesday, Nikki and Brie Bella announced that they would be leaving WWE and retiring their “Bella” identity, opting instead to use their legal names, Nikki and Brie Garcia. The decision was prompted by the fact that the Bella name was closely associated with WWE properties and was trademarked by the organization.
Prior to their official announcement, fans had speculated about the possibility of the twins leaving WWE after they removed the Bella name from their social media accounts. The news of their departure was met with support from fellow wrestlers, including AEW star Saraya, who expressed her full support for the Bellas’ decision.
While speaking during an episode of the Nikki & Brie Show, Nikki and Brie discussed the reasoning behind their name change and why they opted not to use their husbands’ last names (Chigvintsev for Nikki and Danielson for Brie) after removing “Bella” from their names.
“There’s a reason why we didn’t want to move in our next chapter with our married names,” Nikki explained. “We love our husbands and they will always have that, especially on our driver’s licenses and everything legal. But we sat and had this conversation and a lot of people were like, ‘You know, I still don’t think you say Artem’s last name right!’ That’s a real tough one!
Our dad, right now, is doing back flips. He’s super happy. Why not go back to our roots? We love our Mexican culture, so let’s go back to Garcia and how everyone knew us.
Nikki Garcia
The Bella twins also want to be unfiltered and uncensored following their WWE exit. It remains to be seen what’s next for the Bella Twins, as WWE owns that name. Regardless, it is certain that the Garcia twins have a lot of things to do with their newfound freedom.
H/T to Ringside News
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