A WWE Hall of Famer has opened up on her regret at cutting a sexist promo on a fellow star.
On the May 30th, 2011 edition of Raw, Karma – better known as Awesome Kong – made an emotional speech explaining that she was taking a leave of absence from the company as she was pregnant.
Unfortunately, her announcement was cut short by the Bella Twins, who were top heels at the time. The pair ran down Karma, mocking her announcement and calling her “fat”.
Brie: “Did we hear you right? You’re pregnant?”
Nikki: “And I just thought you were really, really fat…oh wait, you are.”
However, Nikki Bella has now revealed that the whole incident made her feel uncomfortable.
Nikki Bella felt terrible about the WWE Raw promo
Speaking to Renee Paquette on the latest episode of The Sessions, Nikki Bella opened up about realising the promo was wrong when she saw it on paper. Even after speaking to Kong, it didn’t sit right with the star.
“I remember when I had to cut a promo on [Awesome] Kong, before Brie and I had left for eleven months. And I just remember feeling like sh*t.
“I went with what they said on paper; it was so wrong. And I talked to Kia [Stevens / Kong] before, Kia and I even talked after. It just didn’t feel good, and I didn’t like it.
“I was like, I don’t want cheap pops from the crowd anymore. Especially if it’s not approved by the women.”
Bella went further, explaining that sometimes it felt like the women’s division would take “five steps back” when they should have been tearing barriers down.
“I could have said a lot more stuff on the mic to get these greater reactions; it was never worth it to me because we’re still telling stories, and that’s kind of how I left it the rest of my career.
“But then some of the stuff would be said to me on a hot mic, with not even realizing. I just remember being disappointed, like, okay, we just took five steps back.
“[We should have been] just tearing these barriers down, breaking them; which, we still shattered them. It just took even more work.”
H/T to 411mania for the above transcription.