10 Wrestling Romances that Worked Out
Over the weekend, John Cena and Nikki Bella made the announcement that they were ending their six-plus year relationship (and year-long engagement) via a set of press releases and social media posts.
Cena and the real-life Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace seemed to have an up-and-down romance; viewers of Total Divas and its Bella-centric spinoff Total Bellas are familiar with the often-awkward conversations between WWE's power couple and their disagreements over children and a long-term future that made last year's WrestleMania proposal seem like it might never happen.
Cena may have been notoriously noncommittal throughout the pair's relationship (onscreen and off), but Bella, obviously, hoped for the couple to go the distance. Here are ten wrestling romances Nikki Bella surely saw as inspiration and #RelationshipGoals.
#10. Brie Bella and Daniel Bryan
Lots of fan speculation circles around the idea that the biggest impetus for the Cena-Nikki split was the happiness on display in the other Bella relationship: sister Brie's marriage to Bryan Danielson, a.k.a. Daniel Bryan.
The couple began their flirtations when Bryan was involved in a SmackDown storyline with Brie and Nikki, who were still teaming up as The Bella Twins; the sisters overheard Bryan making reference to being a vegan but, either through mishearing or misunderstanding the word "vegan," assumed this meant the American Dragon was a virgin.
Bryan details in his autobiography how all three felt that the story was pretty silly but wanted to make the most of their screen time; as most couples whose relationships grew out of storylines can attest, the amount of time spent together let Bryan and Brie get to know each other far better, and Bryan was able to see in her the same laid-back hippie type of attitudes he cultivated in himself.
Bryan and Brie married in the spring of 2014; in the span of a month Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the WrestleMania main event, married his wife, and lost both his biggest fan, Connor "The Crusher" Michalek, and his father; this was all before Bryan learned that he would have to relinquish his new top spot due to injuries after his only pay-per-view defense against Kane at Extreme Rules.
The marriage would play a significant role in Bryan's choices in regards to his career as his injuries intensified a year later; during his tearjerker retirement speech, the former indie star mentioned his desire to be a coherent and present husband and father, which repeated concussion issues might one day prevent. The Danielsons welcomed their first child, Birdie Joe, into the world in May of 2017.
At WrestleMania this year, Bryan got to fulfill a dream he was denied at his main event celebration in 2014: he was able to embrace the love of his life after a hard-fought win in a high-profile matchup.