Nikki Bella addresses internet criticism of her backstage segment on WWE RAW with Iyo Sky
As seen during the June 9th 2025 edition of WWE RAW, there was a backstage segment with Nikki Bella and women’s world champion Iyo Sky. Iyo thanked Nikki for paving the way for the current women’s division in WWE.
While speaking on her podcast with sister Brie, Nikki addressed the internet criticism of her segment…
“I meant what I said last night about just being so proud of this women’s division. I did some media right before this and I was kind of saying the same to them but you know, on here, we could elaborate a little bit more. Impact means so many different things, right? And breaking barriers. It’s not just about a moveset in the ring. It’s about using your voice, it’s about fighting for what’s right, it’s about breaking barriers and it’s hard I think for a certain crowd on the internet to understand that.
They’ll hear about you paving a way because you know somebody will make comments when IYO SKY said that to me… But, what they don’t realize is paving the road isn’t just about doing moves and what happened in the ring. It’s also what happened outside of the ring and what it’s done for women’s wrestling as a whole and I get for some of the young people — or some of the ignorant men. Let’s just be honest. I don’t even give a sh*t. They don’t get it. Because they’re just thinking moveset and they’re thinking wins and championships. They don’t think of the overall picture and majority of the time it’s because they’re not a woman. They’ve never had to fight for what we’ve had to fight for. Not only are they not a woman, they’re not a WWE superstar. So they don’t understand it, right? But, so a road paved is women that did so much more than that because they were fighting to do more of that moveset, more of what happens in the ring so there had to be a huge fight outside of it.
That’s why, you know, when I said last night — and you’ll get this and a lot of people will — it’s amazing to see women pick up your blood, sweat and tears, hold on to that — and I’m talking not just me, not just you, every woman from the past, right? That fought for women — take that and make something bigger with it because that’s what you want and that is what these women right now are doing. From their athletic ability and what they are doing in that ring and beyond it. They have a lot of impact outside of it and so, I meant every word I said last night and being so proud and so grateful because there is an insane amount of talent in that locker room.” (quote courtesy of Andrew Thompson)