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WWE News: ‘Total Divas’ Recap [Backstage at ‘SummerSlam’ & ‘TakeOver Brooklyn’]

Published on: January 27, 2016 at 2:49 AM
By Dustin Murrell

As last week’s episode of Total Divas concluded, Nikki Bella was upset that John Cena wasn’t acting more jealous about Dolph Ziggler’s blatant advances, Natalya was bracing herself for Tyson “T.J.” Kidd’s surgery, the Divas Revolution was just getting under way, and Eva Marie had yet to make an appearance. On the follow-up episode, all of these issues are addressed while even more drama is thrown into the mix.

John Cena complicates his stance on marriage and children with Nikki before granting his 500th Make-A-Wish. After being with her husband during his surgery, Natalya finds herself left out of the Divas Revolution. Alicia Fox and Paige develop some serious issues between each other. And the whole Total Divas cast prepares for a weekend in New York City that includes NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn , SummerSlam and WWE Monday Night Raw .

Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and John Cena

The show opens with Nikki and Brie getting lunch. Nikki has just returned from WWE’s tour of Japan and is telling Brie about the disappointment she felt when John didn’t act more jealous about Dolph Ziggler trying to kiss her.

Later, John and Nikki go out to eat at one of their favorite spots — the Dessert Room at Bern’s Steak House in Tampa — to celebrate their three-year anniversary. Nikki used the romantic opportunity to bring up marriage, claiming that her “therapist wants to know” why she hasn’t brought it up with John recently. His response came as a surprise to Bella.

“I would love to marry you.”

However, John qualified that statement by reiterating the fact that he still does not want to have any children of his own — and he doesn’t want to rob Nikki of that experience that he knows she wants so badly.

Nikki discusses the most recent developments over wine with her mother and sister. Much like she did when Nikki was upset about the paperwork Cena made her sign before she moved in with him, the eldest Bella took John’s side, implicitly urging her daughter to stay with the 15-time WWE Champion.

As part of SummerSlam weekend, the Bella Twins were scheduled to read to a group of elementary students along with The Miz. At the last minute, however, Ziggler took his place. While the flirting wasn’t as heavy as it was on last week’s episode, Nikki commented several times how good Dolph was with the kids and what a great dad he would be.

Later, Nikki attends the Make-A-Wish Foundation event in which John grants his 500th wish with the organization. Seeing how well he works with the children makes Nikki even more sad that he doesn’t want to give her any children of his own.

As Hollywood Life reported, Nikki Bella will undergo surgery on her neck on January 27. It is not clear whether or not she’ll be able to return to in-ring action afterwards.

Natalya (Nattie) and Tyson Kidd (T.J.)

While Nattie is quite the workaholic, spending time with her husband as he prepares for surgery is more important than her career. It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Nattie, however, because she is away from everyone at WWE just as the Divas Revolution is kicking into high gear.

After a successful surgery — which included a text from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and a visit from Cesaro — T.J. convinced his wife to return to work while he healed up at home. She returns to the busy WWE life just as everyone from Total Divas is getting set for TakeOver: Brooklyn and SummerSlam .

Feeling left out of the loop, Natalya confesses to Nikki and Brie that she’s concerned about where her career is going. WWE sold out three shows in three nights in the same arena, and Natalya wasn’t scheduled to wrestle on any of the shows. In fact, they ask her to sit in the audience during the women’s match at TakeOver and have her make an appearance at a Friskie’s cat food event.

At the end of the episode, as she is watching the Divas match at SummerSlam on a monitor backstage, she receives some encouragement from Summer Rae and ends the show on a positive note, knowing her time will eventually come once again.

Paige and Alicia Fox

The drama between Paige and Alicia Fox peaks during the highly-anticipated three-team elimination tag match at SummerSlam featuring Team Bella (Nikki, Brie and Alicia) vs. Team B.A.D. (Naomi, Tamina and Sasha Banks) vs. PCB (Paige, Charlotte and Becky Lynch).

In the weeks leading up to the events in New York, Alicia is sick — and contagious. Paige takes time to visit her anyway, and Fox says she’ll be ready for SummerSlam .

In the days leading up to the Biggest Party of the Summer, Paige had arranged for two of her hairstylist friends to have access to the make-up room during SummerSlam so that they could work on her hair and potentially meet new clients as well. Alicia let Paige know that some people were rubbed the wrong way by Paige doing this. Despite Foxy trying to tell Paige not to say anything to anyone, she immediately called those who were upset to deal with the issue. In doing so, she had unwittingly betrayed Alicia’s trust.

After getting the cold shoulder from Alicia, Paige’s boyfriend Kevin visits her in New York. Foxy has bailed on their plans to hang out in NYC and Paige discovers via social media that Alicia has stopped following Paige on Twitter and Instagram. Her immediate reaction is double-down on being a loner.

When the big Divas match came up at SummerSlam , Foxy was still upset with Paige. Paige still didn’t understand what was going on. While Paige’s team eventually won the marquee match-up, it didn’t happen without Foxy and the Anti-Diva making things worse between them.

After the match, they finally hashed things out. They apologized to each other and promised to be straight forward about things in the future.

Eva Marie

Possibly the most hated among the Total Divas cast, Eva Marie made her Season 5 debut on this episode, albeit it a short. She was shown walking around New York City with her mother and hairdresser (interesting note, Eva’s hairdresser and both of Paige’s hairdressers are men) and was overheard saying that she wants to sit down with the other Divas to get everything out on the table before moving on.

They also showed a few clips of her match at TakeOver: Brooklyn with Carmella. Perhaps she will confront the rest of the Divas on next week’s episode.

The information in this recap has been confirmed by WWE.com’s official Total Divas recap .

The E! Network airs WWE’s Total Divas airs weekly on Tuesday nights at 9/8c.

[Image via Total Divas ]

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