Coming out of her retirement from in-ring competition, Nikki Bella performed in the international WWE premium live event, Clash in Paris, gunning for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. While she came out short in her attempt, this didn’t lead her to stop throwing praise on her rival, Becky Lynch, who’s often been touted as one of the all-time greats in the history of the WWE.
As her beef with Lynch heated up going into Clash in Paris over the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship, Nikki Bella spoke with Sports Illustrated and praised her opponent. She noted that when Lynch was first rising in WWE, her talent was overshadowed by the other Four Horsewomen members, namely Charlotte Flair and the former Sasha Banks, AEW’s Mercedes Mone.
“I did see potential, but I’ll admit it was definitely overshadowed. You couldn’t help but see what Charlotte Flair was doing, and then Sasha Banks,” Nikki Bella remembered Becky Lynch emerging to the scene when she was on top of the WWE Divas division a decade ago.
“They were such standouts. Sasha was coming off of that iconic match in NXT with Bayley, so your eyes were really on her. And then Charlotte Flair came in… and there was a lot of focus on her for the Divas Title.”
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Nikki Bella compared her fearless gimmick with Becky Lynch
Continuing in the conversation, Nikki Bella continued to say that she sees similarities between her bringing the Fearless gimmick onto WWE programming and Lynch becoming THE MAN to ultimately experience a surge in popularity. As such, Lynch could have ridden her popularity into the main event of WrestleMania 35, the first-ever in the women’s division.
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Nikki Bella also spoke about the Divas Era lacking the opportunities that are easily available in Lynch’s generation. She further assumed that the athletes they had in the Divas division would have “knocked it out of the ballpark” if they were given such opportunities. WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H was then credited by the WWE Hall of Famer for offering those opportunities to the current roster.
In the third match of Clash in Paris 2025 PLE, Becky Lynch (c) defeated WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella to retain the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. This was the first time that the latter was challenging for a championship in the WWE in seven years. At present, she is hoping for a rematch for the mid-card title in the WWE.