Why Splitting The Bella Twins is Bad for Business
The Bella Twins have officially split apart. Nikki and Brie are on the best run of their careers as of right now. But, now Brie is a babyface and Nikki is a heel. Brie Bella was involved in a feud with Stephanie McMahon while Nikki was Brie's sidekick. Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella had a normal match at SummerSlam, until Stephanie's husband Triple H got involved by pulling the referee out of the ring. Brie Bella then proceeded to hit a suicide dive to Triple H while Nikki entered the ring. In the squared circle, Stephanie was trapped in between the Bella Twins until Nikki moved Stephanie out of the way and attacked her sister. The result was Stephanie McMahon hitting Brie with the pedigree for the win. Some people are excited for the two to feud, but, splitting the Bella Twins is wrong for several reasons.
As most people know The Bella Twins are the stars of a hit reality show called Total Divas on the E! Network. On the show, Nikki and Brie get in several arguments about little things such as being late to an appearance. So, many people are saying splitting them apart on WWE programming makes sense considering they bicker on the show. This of course is not true. Bickering about small things is a lot more smaller than turning on your sister to join forces with a group that's been tormenting her husband for a year. WWE sells Total Divas just as much as they sell their flagship show, Monday Night Raw. On Total Divas, the Bella Twins will still remain close as sisters, but on Raw they will be bitter enemies. It is impossible to sell two different story-lines with the same two people. WWE always shows clips of Total Divas on Raw to help promote the show. If WWE is trying to sell The Bella Twins as bitter rivals, they cannot promote episodes of Total Divas where they are BFFs. Some may argue The Bella Twins can help sell the storyline by hating each other on Total Divas also. But, that would defeat the whole purpose of the reality show. The purpose of Total Divas is to "break kayfabe" and show what happens behind the curtain. Of course one would argue that there is no problem if the show breaks kayfabe anyway. But, WWE still sells Total Divas on their programming and while the reality show does expose what happens beyond the ring, WWE never shows the parts of Total Divas that admits pro wrestling is scripted. Showing Nikki and Brie Bella on Total Divas as close sisters would hurt the rivalry they are having. This new feud will make for a very awkward Total Divas season premiere, and will be a lot harder to sell the show.
Another question that occurred to many fans after SummerSlam was, where does Brie Bella go after this? WWE decided to keep Brie Bella relevant by having her feud with her twin sister. That is understandable, there is not much left for Brie after main eventing two Raws in a row and feuding with one of the key characters on WWE programming. One may argue Brie Bella can chase the Diva's Championship, but that would not work. Brie Bella is a lot more over than the Diva's Title right now. If Brie Bella were to win the Diva's Championship, it still wouldn't be a bigger deal than feuding with Stephanie McMahon in arguably the second biggest match of SummerSlam. Let that sink in, a women's match was the second most speculated match at the second biggest event of the year. There is no way winning the Diva's Championship can top that. So, to keep Brie Bella's momentum going, they decided to have her twin sister turn on her. This makes sense because it will get much more speculation than Brie going into a feud with Paige. But, the feud is a recipe for disaster. Yes I understand, Brie Bella's momentum is still going to ride high with this feud, but then what? After feuding with her sister, what is left for Brie Bella? Nothing that can top the two previous feuds, Brie may win the Diva's title but again, that still doesn't top what she was doing previously. Brie Bella's career peaked at SummerSlam and will never get to that stature again. After the Bella Twins are done feuding, there is nothing left for either of them. The Bella Twins make appearances together simply because they are twins. It will be very hard to sell Brie and Nikki Bella in two different story-lines because they are twins. WWE can have them reunite after their feud, but it will be a lot harder to sell Brie and Nikki together because WWE will have already pushed them as bitter rivals just before.
Splitting the Bella Twins apart was a bad call. Nikki is scheduled to cut a promo tonight on Raw, but what do we expect? The feud between Brie and Stephanie was only enjoyable because of Stephanie McMahon's promos. Brie nor Nikki can sell a storyline well. Brie's promos against Stephanie were boring, and Nikki's backstage interviews were boring as well. All fans can expect from this is an extremely boring feud between Nikki and Brie. After the feud, The Bella Twins will be exactly where they were before, simply because a diva in WWE cannot get more over than how The Bella Twins were at SummerSlam. The Bella Twins are officially no longer together, which is a horrible thing.
