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WWE News: ‘Total Divas’ Recap [Season Premiere — Backstage At ‘Beast In The East’ In Tokyo]

Published on: January 20, 2016 at 8:04 AM
By Dustin Murrell

At the end of Season 4 of Total Divas , Dolph Ziggler was just leaning in to try to kiss Nikki Bella, despite the fact that her boyfriend, John Cena , was currently in the building. Viewers of the WWE-centric reality show on E! were left anticipating how the unmarried half of the Bella Twins would respond to her ex-boyfriend’s aggressive move. Meanwhile, Paige wasn’t all that excited that she had been proposed to by her lead guitarist boyfriend Kevin Skaff (of the band A Day to Remember), and the husbands of Natalya (Tyson Kidd) and Brie Bella (Daniel Bryan) were dealing with very serious injuries.

Season 5 picks up right where all of that left off, just before some of the WWE Divas head to Japan for a WWE Live events tour.

Love Triangle: Nikki Bella, John Cena, Dolph Ziggler

As Dolph leans in for that kiss, Nikki slaps him away. She then runs off to tell her sister Brie and fellow Diva Paige. The Showoff (often referred to on this show by “Nick,” his real name) tries to talk to Nikki about it, but she says they can no longer even be friends after a stunt like that. Nikki, still the WWE Divas Champion at the time of this taping, is headed to Japan for WWE’s live tour. Paige will be joining her. Ironically, a picture of the promotional tour poster just happens to feature Nikki Bella, John Cena , and Dolph Ziggler.

Once the WWE crew lands in Tokyo, Nikki runs into Cena backstage, but just for a moment. She says nothing to him about the situation with Ziggler. She finds Paige again, and they see that the promotional poster no longer features Nikki — she’s been replaced with Brock Lesnar , the main attraction of the Beast in the East special. She tells Paige that she didn’t tell John yet because he’s tagging with Ziggler throughout the Japanese tour. As Paige stresses out about her unwanted engagement, Nikki says she’s never been proposed to and stresses out more about the Ziggler thing.

Footage is shown of Nikki Bella defending the WWE Divas Championship against Tamina and Paige in a Triple Threat Match. Spoiler alert: she wins. Post-match, Paige and Nikki are walking together backstage. They cross paths with Ziggler, but no words are exchanged. When they finally do talk, Dolph accuses Nikki of “settling” for Cena, since he won’t give her what she really wants. When Ziggler finds out Nikki hasn’t said anything to Cena, he says he wants to do it. Nikki refuses.

Later, as Paige and Nikki are relaxing at a spa, Ziggler shows up. Paige had texted him. She wants them to work the situation out. After some very passive-aggressive comments about the five-year relationship Nikki and Dolph had in the past, they put the whole thing to rest. Nikki will tell John.

We see footage of John Cena and Dolph Ziggler defeating Kane and Wade Barrett in front of the Tokyo crowd, as confirmed by WWE. Cena is still the WWE United States Champion at this time. At a very nice restaurant, Nikki finally tells Cena about Ziggler’s move. He actually takes it very well. Nikki is not happy about his lack of a response. She thinks he should be pissed. But that’s where this story ends for the week.

Brie Bella and Daniel Bryan — His Injury

If Nikki and John’s relationship seems a little crazy to you, you’re not the only one. While eating dinner with his wife, Brie, Daniel Bryan has some very noteworthy things to say. One of them is about his sister-in-law and her relationship with the biggest name in the industry today.

“John and [Nikki] have a weird relationship in general. It’s weird. The dude doesn’t want to get married or have kids, but ‘don’t worry, I’ll buy you all this stuff. But we’re in love.’ I do not understand their relationship.”

At that same dinner, he also reveals that he never really liked being a judge on Tough Enough . Brie is clearly trying to get Bryan interested in a non-wrestling job, but he doesn’t seem interested at this point. Regarding that specific thought, he gave quite an insight to the inner workings of the mind of Daniel Bryan.

“Once I stop wrestling, people will stop listening to me, because they only care about me in respect to wrestling. You see that once people leave the spotlight — especially within the realm of wrestling and WWE — people no longer care what they have to say.”

Later in the episode, Brie takes Daniel to meet with some people in their hometown about a project supporting the local economy. While this is exactly the sort of thing Daniel supports, his heart isn’t fully into it. He says that all he thinks about is wrestling and admits to these potential business partners that he “might” have to retire soon. Back in the car, Daniel explains to Brie that he’s just not sure this is what he wants to do at this point.

When they get home, they have it out. Brie says that Daniel needs to find another career. Daniel says that he’s not interested in giving up his dream yet and that he feels like Brie is pushing him to do something else. Reluctantly, Brie says she supports her husband’s dream and will stop pushing him to do something else.

Natalya and Tyson Kidd — His Injury

Another married couple dealing with an injury is WWE Diva Natalya and her husband, Tyson Kidd (mostly referred to as “T.J.” on this show). Early in the show, Brie, Natalya, and Alicia Fox are shown driving to a Thursday Night SmackDown taping, discussing Tyson and Daniel’s injuries.

Later, back at Natalya’s home, her husband and her parents join her. Tyson is shown in a neck brace. He has a bruised spinal cord. It’s a very serious situation, but Tyson was lucky that he didn’t suffer any paralysis. Little else is said about their situation in this episode of Total Divas , as confirmed by E! Online ‘s recap.

Paige’s Engagement to Kevin

When she’s not listening to Nikki’s problems about Cena and Ziggler, Paige is dealing with her own love life’s problems. While she loves her boyfriend, Kevin, she’s not very excited to be engaged. To make matters worse, before she’s able to tell Kevin this, he informs her that his parents are coming to visit so they can finally meet her. While in Japan, Paige goes to a cat cafe. She FaceTimes with Alicia about the impending parental visit. Alicia warns her to talk to Kevin as soon as possible.

The rockstar fiance picks Paige up at the airport when she arrives home from Japan. She’s not wearing her engagement ring, and Kevin seems annoyed by this. When they get home, Paige receives a call from her mom asking questions about the engagement. After the call, she finally breaks down and tells Kevin that she loves him but doesn’t want to be engaged. He’s upset that she wasn’t honest with him from the beginning, but the two hug it out, and it seems as though everything is going to be okay.

Eva Marie and Rosa Mendes were completely left out of this episode, and we still haven’t been introduced to Tough Enough finalist Mandy, who joins Total Divas this season. They will likely be a part of next week’s episode, which airs on E! next Tuesday at 9/8c.

[Image via Twitter ]

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