Nikki Bella Was ‘Really Nervous’ for Her WWE Return, but Says Coworkers’ Support Helped: ‘Like Being Home’ (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Nikki Bella returned to WWE on Monday night

• Bella is a two-time women’s champion and WWE Hall of Famer, having been inducted in 2020

• Bella said she was “really nervous” for her WWE comeback, but family, friends, and coworkers’ encouragement helped

All day backstage on Monday, WWE wrestlers and officials greeted Nikki Bella with joy and encouragement ahead of her long-awaited return.

“I was of course really nervous because it’s been so long, but it was crazy,” the WWE Hall of Famer, 41, tells PEOPLE in her first interview since returning to the professional wrestling company. “And everyone kept telling me, they’d go, ‘Nikki, the minute you walk in that arena, you’re going to feel at home, and it’s all going to come back,’ and it was so true.”

Bella, whose real name is Nikki Garcia, didn’t appear to miss a beat in her return to Monday Night RAW — her first appearance on one of WWE’s weekly programs since 2022.

“It felt so good,” says Bella. “I can’t tell you how many text messages I’ve gotten today, like, ‘Girl, it was like you were just right back in it. You could tell that’s your happy place.’ I’ve been getting so much love from friends and family and coworkers saying how natural it was to see me back in there. They all were like, you just seemed so happy and like you were back home.”

Bella began training for her in-ring return in January, often flying across the country to train at WWE’s performance center in Orlando, Fla., while balancing her day-to-day life on the West Coast as a mother, a podcaster and now a reemerging pro wrestler. The plan is for Bella to have another extended in-ring run, rather than Monday night’s appearance just being a one-off, as is often the case with returning WWE Hall of Famers. “You’ll definitely see me for a bit,” Bella says. “It’s not a quick in and out.”

Bella first joined WWE when she was 22 years old, wrestling for a decade and a half alongside her twin sister Brie Garcia (aka “Brie Bella”). As the “Bella Twins,” the Phoenix, Ariz., natives became two of the most recognizable stars in the company during the 2010s. Nikki won two world championships during her initial WWE tenure and in 2015 was crowned the No. 1 women’s wrestler in the world by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. In 2020, she and Brie were inducted in WWE’s Hall of Fame, cementing their legacies in the ring.

All the while, the Bellas’ popularity outside WWE boomed with their appearances on E!’s Total Divas, later receiving their own spinoff, Total Bellas. Bella parlayed her fame into a handful of reality television roles, including a prominent run on Dancing With the Stars, where she met her ex-husband Artem Chigvintsev, who she married in August 2022. Bella finalized her divorce from Chigvintsev last November, just weeks after he was arrested and charged with domestic abuse.

The situation has led to Bella remaining private about many aspects of her otherwise very public life, choosing to “take the high road” in the interest of protecting her and Chigvintsev’s 5-year-old son Matteo, she explains to PEOPLE. And in WWE, a soap operatic wrestling show predicated on blending reality with its fictitious storylines, Bella says she, her fellow wrestlers, and the company itself have an understanding that she still wishes to maintain a certain level of privacy.

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On Monday during a heated (fictional) confrontation with Bella, former WWE Women’s Champion Liv Morgan referenced the returning superstar’s divorce before their interaction quickly moved on to a physical dust up in the ring. For Bella, moments like that prove there’s a way to accomplish both recognizing reality and not dragging out the details of her private life on screen.

“The beauty of how us women are and how empowering we are with each other is it’s done in a certain way, and that’s what I appreciate,” Bella says about bringing her personal life to her wrestling character. “And WWE has said that to me from the beginning. They’ve been so incredible of respecting my boundaries and my son, which is amazing.”

Matteo still doesn’t fully comprehend his mother’s second life as a pro wrestler, she says. “I show him some of my training videos and he’s just kind of like, hmm,” Bella laughs. “Now Buddy, Brie’s son, he already told his dad and mom that I’m his favorite wrestler. He really loves it. But Matteo is like, I don’t know, I think I just like her as mom.”

One day, though, Bella plans to fully immerse him in the world of pro wrestling — especially women’s wrestling. “I definitely will be bringing him to stuff because I really want him to see me in that light and see what I’ve done for 16 years and I want him to be a part of it,” she says. “I want to raise not only a gentleman, but someone who looks at women and sees how strong and empowering they are and honors that.”

For now, Bella is giddy enough knowing she’s the “cool aunt” to Brie’s son Buddy and their brother J.J. Garcia’s two daughters, who were both in attendance with their dad at WWE’s Monday Night RAW taping this week where Bella mader her anticipated return. The next morning, one of J.J.’s daughters woke up and asked her dad if she could wear a WWE t-shirt with her Aunt Nikki on it so she could tell all her friends at summer camp about what her aunt did the night before at PHX Arena.

“Sometimes you don’t realize the impact you have just by putting on a match or being up there in your superhero suit,” Bella says, smiling through the phone a day after her return. “I just feel so blessed and grateful.”

Read the original article on People