Nikki Bella fires back at WWE WarGames critics

WWE star Nikki Bella at Fanatics Fest NYC 2025

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Matthew Couden

By Matthew Couden

Contributing Writer

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The recent WWE Survivor Series: WarGames featured four matches on the card, including two WarGames matches, John Cena defending the Intercontinental Championship, and Nikki Bella challenging Stephanie Vaquer for the Women's World Heavyweight Championship.

According to Nikki, some critics are getting carried away with their criticism of the event. She recently mentioned that she felt an essential aspect of professional wrestling, the storytelling, is getting lost these days due to fans' criticism of matches.

“Sometimes online, some have been so critical of it, and I’m like, ‘You guys, get back to the make-believe of what we did,’” Nikki said while discussing WarGames with her sister on “The Nikki & Brie Show.”

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Nikki suggested fans are "going after the creative team and all these people at WWE," adding that fans need to "enjoy the really good wrestling and also enjoy the storytelling."

WWE star Nikki Bella at Fanatics Fest NYC 2025

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A recent Sportster report called the Survivor Series men's WarGames match "the worst PLE main event of 2025," rating it a 5.5 out of 10 because it did not further the stories or feuds between the participants. The outlet noted that CageMatch.net gave it a similar score at 5.51.

A review of Nikki and Stephanie's match at TJR Wrestling gave it the lowest score of the four matches on the card, at two and three-fourths of a star. They indicated it would make a "solid TV match," but there wasn't much heat, and the fans seemed quiet throughout.

As of this writing, Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer has yet to rate the WarGames matches, but it would be surprising to see him give Nikki's match a high rating.

Nikki indicated that the online fans have been the most critical, but that she enjoyed the atmosphere and environment at San Diego's Petco Park, where the event took place.

“That crowd from beginning to end was amazing,” Nikki told Brie, adding that her match was in “the toughest spot of them all” before the main event.

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"I get lost in the make-believe of WarGames. Like you can't wait to see who's gonna come out, what weapon they'll have, that's so fun," she suggested.

Nikki failed in her quest to defeat Stephanie for the championship, ultimately getting hit with several Devil's Kiss moves before Stephanie hit a spinning corkscrew for the pinfall. During her chat with Brie about fan criticism, she mentioned that many comments focused on the match being slower and lacking many back-and-forth moves.

"It was supposed to have more emotion and recognize that this person's turned bad and this person's turned good," she explained, indicating it was more about her and Stephanie's story.

While Nikki said there were critical fans online about her match, she also said she received supportive, positive feedback via text from some top stars at the company, whom she didn't name.