Nikki Garcia (formerly Nikki Bella) discussed her departure from WWE on Amanda Hirsch’s Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.
She said, “I think it’s different for men than women. 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.’
I’ll be honest, I got a lawyer letter four hours before my contact 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.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(quote courtesy of Colin Tessier)
