Nikki Bella is ready for the ‘Diva’ name to go away

As Ronda Rousey did in her interview with TMZ, Nikki Bella confirming the Raw Women’s championship match as the “main event” of Evolution during her panel at ACE Comic-Con in Chicago yesterday (Oct. 12).

Oh well. Becky Lynch’s promos on again being passed over by WWE should be straight fire.

During the interview and Q & A Nikki and sister Brie did with Lillian Garcia at the con (watch it here), the Fearless One also revealed that she really doesn’t like the WWE brand she’s closely tied with. Yes, the star of Total Divas and the longest reigning Divas champion in history isn’t a fan of the “Divas” label:

“I need to have a reign that outbeats the Divas championships so I’m not always called a Diva and then one day I can actually be called a Raw Women’s champion, so I got red in my eyes and I’m looking for that championship at Evolution.”

And she never was:

“And believe me as girls even in the past, I remember when they brought out the butterfly championship and we were all kind of like, ‘Oh.’ We weren’t expecting it... it’s totally cute, but it wasn’t like what the women were craving. They were craving what it is now. So that’s why Evolution is so beautiful, cause it’s the women of the past, also the future and the present fighting - you know, everyone gets to be at one show with that same vision. It’s finally coming to life.”

In fact, Nikki says she’s been an advocate for taking the long-running E! reality show she stars in and executive produces, but the network isn’t budging:

“Being an executive producer on Total Divas, we’ve had so many discussions about changing the name of the show and unfortunately, it’s on network TV, you can’t just change the name one day. So they have felt that people will still be connected with it even though it’s called Total Divas. I feel like the opposite - I feel like there’s a huge disconnect, because we’ve made that name so bad.”

Even with the move back to Women’s titles, fans have pointed out the disconnect between the promotion of Total Divas and WWE wrestling’s “Women’s Evolution”. But it’s pretty striking to here Nikki say it, considering her association with the brand and the overall pushback from insiders against using “divas” as a derogatory term.

Not that Nikki says anything remotely negative about the women or the wrestling of the era - she sounds more focused on moving on from the past, as opposed to rejecting it. She even talks about wanting kayfabe (and alleged shoot) nemesis AJ Lee back for the all-women’s pay-per-view (PPV) on Oct. 28.

But it would appear we’re all stuck with the term for as long as E! keeps the reality show around.

You can find Nikki & Brie’s entire appearance on ACE Comic Con’s Facebook page here.