Nikki and Brie Bella are reportedly leaving Total Divas behind to focus their efforts on Total Bellas.
According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, the twins made their exit at the end of Season 8 of the E! reality show to focus on their spinoff, Season 4 of which is airing currently.
Videos by PopCulture.com
To fill the void, producers allegedly got Ronda Rousey to join the show for Season 9, joining Sonya Deville, Carmella, Natalya, Nia Jax and Naomi.
This means that Paige will be among the cast members exiting alongside Lana and Rusev.
Prior to leaving the show behind, Lana opened up in an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com about her season-long feud with Paige, which culminated in a tense fight on a girls’ trip vacation.
“Actually to watch it back on screen, I was really nervous. I was getting kind of anxiety about it. It was really hard. It was a really emotional couple of days for me,” Lana told PopCulture.com of watching the fight play out after the fact.
“I felt like, over time, so many people were telling me what to do, and I don’t do very well when people tell me what to do,” Lana explained of the fight’s origins. “It all started from that, but it really escalated to something much bigger, and I was just devastated.”
The women eventually escalated their fight to a more personal level, which Lana said at the time she didn’t see coming.
“I love Paige, and I’ve always loved her, and I’ve supported her,” Lana explained. “When she started saying those words, that she hated me, I was devastated. I didn’t know that I had hurt her so much. I thought we had moved on and forgiven one another and talked it all out about those issues of the past. I didn’t realize that she still held … like, there was still resentment.”
The women eventually made up, both apologizing for their role in the spat. “I realized I had to forgive her if I ever want her to forgive me or others to forgive me, and that’s what life is about, taking responsibility for your actions and forgiving people,” Lana explained.
While Lana and Paige were making up, Nikki and John Cena were breaking up, announcing they had called off their engagement in April 2018.
Nikki has been dealing with the fall-out from the end of their relationship on Season 4 of Total Bellas, moving out of Cena’s and her longtime home and beginning to get back out there when it comes to dating.
“I have this new life, and I’m just trying to experience what I want to do with this new life, this new beginning,” she said in a January episode.
Total Bellas airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on E!
Photo credit: E!
