When Total Divas first premiered on the E! Network back in 2013, the women's division in WWE was a different place. However, as with women's wrestling and the treatment it has witnessed since then, the reality show has also improved by leaps and bounds. And so have a lot of its cast members.
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Over the years, many participants have come and gone in Total Divas, though a few cast members, especially the highly-successful Bellas, have become permanent fixtures and celebrities in their own rights. However, there's still a lot that wrestling and Reality TV fans do not know about the series that ran until December 2019.
10 It Saved The Bellas
While the Bellas — Nikki and Brie — were established names in WWE by the time the show aired, their popularity had been on the decline. This was mostly because fans were not convinced by their, admittedly improved, in-ring work, and their wrestling characters were proving to be unpopular.
The sisters were even reported to be on their way out by many sources. Luckily for them, Total Divas began airing, and their brand has only soared since, earning them their own spinoff, Total Bellas.
9 The Bellas Were Initially Reluctant To Join
Ironically, for a show that ensured they remained relevant on WWE TV and made them household entertainment names, the Bellas were reluctant to join the cast of Total Divas. Apparently, they were unsure if they wanted their entire lives playing out on TV for millions of viewers, and that insecurity almost stopped them from getting on board.
However, as has been repeated millions of times, the show benefited nobody more than the twin sisters, who now have their own spin-off show, thanks to their success on the original series. They now enjoy a much higher profile in the entertainment industry than if they were just wrestlers for WWE.
8 Paige And Her Pregnancy
When her close friend Rosa Mendes, added to the show in Season 3, was planning a baby shower, Paige seemed weirdly aloof. This led the former to confront Paige on her recent distant behavior.
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That is when the former Divas Champion revealed that she had once been pregnant when just 18, but due to health complications, she lost the child. Seeing Rosa plan a baby shower just brought back bad memories, and that was why the Brit seemed so emotional.
7 Paige's Scenes Were Deleted
For a while, due to her relationship with Alberto Del Rio and injuries, Paige kind of became non-existent on WWE TV, and this extended to Total Divas. Apart from her and Del Rio's scandalous relationship and the latter's bitterness towards WWE, there was also the controversy of her leaked tape.
Hence, the producers did everything they could to cut her out of every episode of that season of the show. This was damaging as Paige had helped bring in viewers, and her absence saw the season's ratings plummet to levels never seen before or after.
6 Rosa Mendes And Rehab
Rosa Mendes was part of WWE for the better part of one and a half decades, before finally retiring in 2017 to concentrate on her family. A regular on the show, she also decided to reveal why she used to take so many breaks from WWE TV.
While never the best in-ring worker, apparently, Rosa also had issues outside the ring that led her to attend rehab. Luckily, she was able to conquer her demons and is now the mother of a beautiful daughter.
5 Heavily Scripted, With A Sprinkling Of Real Moments
Being a reality show, it is no surprise that Total Divas was a heavily scripted show. While it felt real to many fans, what was happening in the episodes was a result of the producers planning things that way.
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However, that does not mean there was no room for genuine moments. The couples on the show were very much actual couples, while Alexa Bliss revealing her battle with anorexia from a few years ago was also a real moment for which she needs to be lauded.
4 Some Couples Were Too Boring To Be Featured
As already focused on, Total Divas was a reality show, so the main aim was to create drama and tensions that would have audiences hooked and coming back for more. However, the producers felt that some couples who were part of the cast were too boring for the series.
Jimmy Uso/Naomi and Renee Young/Dean Ambrose are two prime examples of this practice. They were removed from the show the season after their vanilla relationships failed to draw in the desired ratings.
3 Control Freak John Cena
Total Divas' John Cena and WWE performer John Cena are two incredibly different people, and perhaps the company would not want fans to know this. While the latter is the all-conquering, never-say-die hero who sells a bucket load of merch, the reality show version is seen as a big control freak.
He made Nikki Bella sign a 75-page cohabitation agreement, while also generally appearing as someone who needed everything to be done his way. This move, especially, caused a lot of social media angst against the 'franchise player,' and WWE would definitely have liked to leave this episode in a dark hole somewhere.
2 Maryse And The Bellas
During the early years of the show, Maryse and the Bellas just did not get along. While there was the obvious professional rivalry as WWE performers, the problems seemed to run a lot deeper.
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Apparently, Nikki and Brie were the reasons Maryse did not return sooner after her first stint with the company, as they had cost her a job with WWE years earlier. Not surprisingly, the producers wanted to cover this angle in the show, but luckily, the two parties have managed to put past misgivings behind them and become amenable co-workers, if not the thickest of friends.
1 Many Women Didn't Want To Appear On The Show
Reality TV isn't for everyone, especially so if wrestlers have grown up working hard to get an opportunity with WWE for their in-ring chops and not acting skills. Hence, when the show first started and there was an open invitation to all the locker room women to join, many declined and continued to do so till the end.
Some major examples of female superstars who gave the show a miss are AJ Lee and the Four Horsewomen (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley). They were more interested in continuing to become better performers for WWE TV than appearing on Total Divas.
