Nikki Bella WWE

Nikki Bella Opens Up About A Potential Heel Turn

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Aidan Chacon | Last updated Sep 9, 2025 10:01 AM ET

If John Cena can turn to the dark side, anyone can.

Nikki Bella has been cheered for most of her career. She infamously feuded with her sister Brie while aligning with Stephanie McMahon. Nikki went as far as to cost her sister a one-on-one victory against McMahon at SummerSlam 2014.

Since the storm of that feud has blown over, Nikki has maintained her Fearless persona and continues to be a role model to young women around the world. However, she revealed on the most recent episode of the Nikki & Brie Show that she'd have it a different way if she could.

Nikki Bella Would Be A Heel If She Could

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Fearless Nikki lives up to her moniker and doesn't back down from a challenge. While expressing her desire to be a heel, she's welcomed the challenge of wanting to be liked by the crowd in an era where crowds can be tougher and harder to please.

"I’m really excited to maybe push Fearless Nikki in a different direction. Deep down, I would love to go back heel, but it’s so much fun to have the challenge of being a babyface in this era that is a very different era. That’s been something. I’m excited to see what’s to come with it.”Nikki Bella

Nikki also revealed her creative thought process upon returning to WWE earlier this year for the Royal Rumble. She cited wanting the initial return to be about a Hall of Famer returning and delivering on the nostalgia fans were hoping for.

The new era of WWE under Triple H has lit a fire under many superstars including Nikki Bella. She claims the freedom stars have now compared to before has broadened her horizons and has led her to venturing out into turning heel again.

“In the beginning, I wanted to keep Fearless Nikki as Fearless Nikki because, to me, my comeback was more about nostalgia and ‘here is this Hall of Famer and legend, let’s keep her as is.’ That was my mindset. I’m a marketing machine, so I wanted to keep what was marketable and what people recognized me as. Now, being in it, I’m actually wanting to kind of change her a little bit."

WWE Is Different Now

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The longest-reigning WWE Divas Champion of all-time used this opportunity to also express how much more fun it is to be in WWE today. The way in which WWE creative goes about producing weekly television with their talent has made being a WWE superstar much more enjoyable. Nikki explained how she has an open line of communication with creative regarding everything she does on television and many other superstars do as well.

"I do work with creative, every week, hands-on. I love being hands-on. Everyone there is hands-on. It’s actually very different than before. Even when we do promos, we used to get handed something, and it’s way different now. It’s really cool. You just sit and talk about it. They give you the basis of the idea, but everything is different the day of. It was never like this before and it’s really cool."