{"id":149549,"date":"2025-12-30T11:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=149549"},"modified":"2025-12-29T22:08:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T03:08:56","slug":"5-must-face-opponents-for-wwes-nikki-bella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/30\/5-must-face-opponents-for-wwes-nikki-bella\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Must-Face Opponents for WWE&#8217;s Nikki Bella"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella made her long-awaited return to WWE at Royal Rumble 2025 and has been working a full-time WWE schedule since the summer of 2025. While it has been great seeing Bella back in action once again, she announced on an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/media\/videos\/nikki-bella-on-embracing-her-bad-girl-heel-era-in-the-wwe-behind-the-scenes-of-monday\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Entertainment Tonight<\/a> that this full-time run of hers will most likely be her last.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a lot of new talent that has arrived on the main roster in the absence of Nikki Bella. There are also many women who have crossed paths with Bella but never had a one-on-one feud. We\u2019ve already seen Bella have a feud against Stephanie Vaquer and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/16\/nikki-bella-raquel-rodriguez-wwe-raw\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Raquel Rodriguez<\/a>, but who\u2019s next?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are five opponents Nikki Bella should feud with before hanging up her boots.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_149559\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-149559\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-149559\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/Nikki_Bella_RR25_2_cropped-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Nikki Bella entering the WWE Royal Rumble\" width=\"361\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/Nikki_Bella_RR25_2_cropped-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/Nikki_Bella_RR25_2_cropped.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 361px) 100vw, 361px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-149559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Diego Serrano, CC BY 2.0 via <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Nikki_Bella_RR25_2_(cropped).jpg#\/media\/File:Nikki_Bella_RR25_2_(cropped).jpg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Liv Morgan<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liv Morgan and Nikki Bella crossed paths a few times back in 2018. However, it wasn\u2019t only those two involved; it was a feud between The Bella Twins and The Riott Squad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then, Liv Morgan has evolved immensely and come into her own character. A feud between Bella and Morgan could be reignited, especially right now, considering Bella has been having matches against Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. Is Liv Morgan next?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morgan recently returned to the ring after suffering from a shoulder injury. Maybe the timing is meant to be for these two to get back in the squared circle together, but this time one-on-one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you think?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Jade Cargill<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Nikki Bella was away, a storm came to the WWE. The storm being: the current WWE Women\u2019s Champion is Jade Cargill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bella and Cargill have never stepped in the ring together, but if they did, it would be a colossal event. Between the experience of Nikki Bella and the power that both women have, it would be hard to imagine that they don\u2019t create an unforgettable match.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also have great characters, meaning that, if handled properly, a feud between them could go far and keep the crowd very entertained. Bella and Cargill are powerful, and their presence is strong, but who\u2019s stronger in the ring? Will Nikki Bella be fearless against the storm?<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Looks like <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jade_Cargill?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Jade_Cargill<\/a> got the last laugh \ud83d\udc40 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4RNE1rdMeF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4RNE1rdMeF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WWE (@WWE) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1999670994441576956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Alexa Bliss<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For being in the WWE at the same time in many points of their career, it is surprising how Nikki Bella and Alexa Bliss haven\u2019t had much of a feud with one another. They mostly faced each other in tag-team matches or fatal-5-ways. The last and only singles match they had against one another was back in 2016 on SmackDown Live, and the match didn\u2019t even last two minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A proper singles match between the two women is beyond overdue, considering their accomplishments. They are both veterans on the main roster and have etched their spots in the locker room. While they are in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/14\/when-will-the-time-be-up-for-wwes-charlotte-flair-and-alexa-bliss\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">different storylines<\/a> right now, who says that these two can&#8217;t cross paths?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be a great match-up as Bliss uses her height to her advantage, while Bella uses her strength in the ring. Given the proper storyline, these two could flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Charlotte Flair<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve seen Charlotte Flair and Nikki Bella have quite a feud before, but there has been some time since they\u2019ve been in the ring against one another. It has been over a decade since their last match in 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two had one of the most memorable feuds for the Divas&#8217; Championship back in 2015. It will go down in history because Flair knocked off the longest-reigning divas champion (Nikki Bella), along with it being the last time the title changed hands before it was replaced with the WWE Women\u2019s Championship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both women have evolved dramatically as characters and in the ring. They could easily reignite a feud, especially now that Nikki Bella is a heel. It is a feud that would excite fans; they love seeing people get back in the ring who have a history together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nikki Bella and Charlotte Flair were two of the women who started the Divas Revolution, which turned into the Women\u2019s Evolution. It would be meaningful to see the women who helped start this movement have one more match against one another before Bella decides to hang up her boots.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Longest Reigning &amp; Final Divas Champion \ud83d\udda4 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NYC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NYC<\/a> @BellaTwins <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2fnRBOAYW6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/2fnRBOAYW6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlotte Flair (@MsCharlotteWWE) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MsCharlotteWWE\/status\/1046068471161901058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Rhea Ripley<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rhea Ripley isn\u2019t only one of the most popular women on the main roster, but she is one of the most popular wrestlers in the WWE. She won over the hearts of the fans through her authenticity and continues to do so every day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ripley embraces her differences on the main roster, which helps her stand out from the rest. Rhea Ripley&#8217;s strength and power are also shocking. She continues to surprise us every time she gets in the ring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rhea Ripley and Nikki Bella have never had a one-on-one match against one another. What\u2019s stopping them now? With Bella coming and going from the WWE, the two never crossed paths, but now that it is likely Bella\u2019s final run, fans want to see her against new opponents. Everyone loves Ripley, so why not her?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Header photo \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:WWE_Live_2015-04-17_20-32-52_ILCE-6000_9334_DxO_(19497721369).jpg#\/media\/File:WWE_Live_2015-04-17_20-32-52_ILCE-6000_9334_DxO_(19497721369).jpg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><em><u><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i> for more on Nikki Bella and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella made her long-awaited return to WWE at Royal Rumble 2025 and has been working a full-time WWE schedule since the summer of 2025. While it has been great seeing Bella back in action once again, she announced on an interview with Entertainment Tonight that this full-time run of hers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5214,"featured_media":149558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,317,4,3,320],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-149549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-women","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-nikki-bella"],"modified_by":"Laci Schlatz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149562,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149549\/revisions\/149562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}