Prior to departing WWE in March of this year, Nikki Garcia was expecting to talk with WWE about using her ring name (Nikki Bella) outside of the company. Instead, she received a legal letter.
Speaking on the latest edition of her “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, the former WWE “Diva” said WWE refused to talk to her about any potential arrangement for her and Brie to continue to use the “Bella” name. She said,
“There was never even a conversation. I think a lot of us, we thought, ‘Oh, maybe there will be a conversation because we have such a huge brand,’ and we were actually making WWE a lot of money. So we actually thought there was gonna be a conversation of, ‘Okay, you guys aren’t re-signing. Let’s talk about the name. Maybe when you do future projects, we take a percentage, you keep the name.’”
She continued, “I’ll be honest, I got a lawyer letter four hours before my contract was ending. They were seizing it all. I keep that letter in my office so I can always see it and just know that, as I enter this new chapter, it’s like I get to see what wasn’t even talked about [with] something I built for 20 years, but I know that I have the power as a woman to build something else for the next 20 years. It was upsetting because we were attached, but also I get a business, like, ‘Hey, this is our platform.’ I get it, I’m very understanding in that way. That is their IP. But we would have continued to have built that if there was a talk.”
