Brie Bella - Incomparable

Gallery Books

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Some names and identifying details have been changed, whether or not so noted in the text.

Copyright 2020 by S Nicole G Colace Entertainment, Inc. and Hummingbird Enterprises Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Gallery Books hardcover edition May 2020

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Interior design by Michelle Marchese

Jacket design by John Vairo Jr.

Jacket photography by Koury Angelo

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019052577

ISBN 978-1-5011-9191-6

ISBN 978-1-5011-9193-0 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to our family, thank you for letting us share our story, and to our Bella Army, we wouldnt be where we are at today without you all.

2019

San Diego, California

In wrestling, cutting a promo is when you get on the mic and create your backstage storylinewhether victim or heel, good guy or bad, beloved or betrayed. Promos are the basis of every great in-ring rivalry, of every highly tuned moment of drama on the mat. Its your chance to make the audience care so that when you step out onto the ramp, youre met with boos or cheers (both equally good, as far as ratings go). Promos are, for the most part, pure fabricationa device of writers and producers who know how to craft compelling characters, who know how to make good TV.

Because we are twins, they didnt have to use a lot of imagination when they launched us on the main roster. We are identical, so their strategy was to treat us like the same person. They made it about our twindom, not us individuallythey made us dress identically, wear our hair identically, move in the ring identically, achieve an identical body composition. This is common in twin culture. In the baby and toddler years, you see it as identical dressingalmost an inability to treat twins differently, to introduce any individuality at all. Its a version of treating everyone the same until they have a chance to express who they are on their own.

When you get older, the cracks in the twindom begin to show. You enter the age of comparison, which lasts your whole life: Which one of you is skinnier, which is smarter, which is better at soccer? Knowing the comparison is comingthat your benchmark is the woman who shared a womb with you, who is sitting next to youmeans that you learn how to compete often and easily. We accepted that it was a hallmark of life. The problem is that the very act of comparison typically requires that someone be better. Someone needs to win.

In many ways, being a twin is like competing against yourself. Its this weird ground where you want to distinguish yourself, you want to win, but it is entwined with love. You dont want the fact that you have won to mean that the person you love the most has lost. I beat my sister at soccer, but only because she was so much better at ballet. She was a better artist, I was better at drama. When youre an identical twin, you start to see your potential as a million possibilitiesyou see in your twin a different outcome from the same egg, not for better or worse. It was easy to then project how we were onto the other girls, to understand that we all have gifts, that some of our qualities can be over-expressed, or not expressed at all. That the worst thing we can do is shut each other down.

It became apparent to both of us that it was all about trade-offs. It was about not having or being everything at the same time, and that the gifts of others are not threats. We came to the understanding that there will always be plenty of beer at the party for everyone. We live in a world of abundancewe just have to choose to see it that way. Your nice house doesnt mean I cant have a nice house, too. The fact that someone else gets something that you want doesnt mean that you wont get it a different time, or that something equally wonderful wont come along that you might want more. As women, we too often feel threatened by other women. We should celebrate what they achieve as a testament of what we can achieve, too.

Comparison of and between women is rampant in our culture, and with that comes this idea and fear of scarcitythat there isnt enough opportunity to go around.

And historically there certainly hasnt been. We witness it firsthand in WWE, where the men far outnumber the women on the roster. But we also see that this reality is shifting. As we along with the other Divas-turned-Superstars have brought more awareness to womens wrestlingthrough our TV shows, through cutting great promos, and through pure athletic acrobatics and sportwe have brought more young girls and women into the audience. They want to see more of us, and the makeup of the roster is beginning to shift in response. Wrestling is different from other sports in that it is a competition, yes, but it is also a collaboration. We rely on each other to pull off our matches. We rely on each other to make the spectacle look good, to put on a great show. In many ways, we are the perfect illustration of how women helping women only creates more opportunities for all of usnot the other way around. We watched as multiple women experienced success at the very same time. This is not a strange concept to men, but it is certainly not standard thinking for women across the board. We often work at places where there might only be one female executive at a company. We hope that we are part of a cultural movement that helps to change thatwhere young girls grow up believing that they can do anything, without also having to believe that theyre going to have to break down walls to do it.

Being part of this movement is a great privilegeand a great responsibility. And thats one of the reasons that Nicole and I felt like it was so important to tell our whole story, from the beginning. It has had incredible bright spotswe both have comfortable lives and incredible careers in WWE that are hopefully not close to being over yet. I have an amazing husband, Bryan, and my daughter, Birdie. If Im lucky, Ill have another kid; I have every confidence that Nicole is going to be a mother down the road, too. But it has not been easy to get here. Ours is certainly not the worst story youll ever read in terms of adversitythere are people who have risen from far more terrible circumstances. But it was very rough at times and punctuated with loss and pain, which forced us to a point of real strength. After all, something has to shine the diamond.

The tendency to play the victim card is strong in our culture, particularly for women. I absolutely understand whyI think it goes back to feeling compared. A shitty childhood, or bad circumstances along the way, is one way to distinguish yourself or justify why what