As strong and fearless WWE superstars John Cena and Nikki Bella are, it seems their romantic relationship has only helped demonstrate that even the toughest of individuals can easily be made vulnerable by emotional challenges and personal obstacles.
The on-again-off-again couple was set to live out a perfect fairytale after John publically proposed to Nikki at WrestleMania after years of being together. But since then, the couple has experienced a few hiccups, which (somewhat conveniently) have been well-documented in Nikki's reality TV show, Total Bellas.
Almost exactly a year after John got down on one knee in April of 2017, the couple called the wedding off. They announced they would be "separating as a couple" via a post on Instagram, something that came as a complete shock for those who were oblivious to the mounting awkwardness between the couple in previous episodes of Nikki's show.
John posted this image once the news was out...
... and everyone realised that, yep, things were over for sure.
John and Nikki broke up earlier in this season of Total Bellas, which just had its season finale. Over the course of the TV show (err, and also their lives), the two appeared to patch things up. It came after an intimate dinner conversation where John said he'd have kids with Nikki – something that had caused a lot of clamour in their relationship up until that point.
But in the end, it was confirmed that the couple would stay separated, as Nikki decided that it was the right decision because she'd "lost herself" while with John for six years. The emotional season finale of Total Bellas aired on Sunday, and viewers were given an insight into the difficult moments Nikki and John endured as they called off their marriage for the second time, five weeks before they were due to get hitched.
It all happened at the end of the episode, where Nikki opens up to her twin sister Brie about how much it sucks to have a relationship in the public eye.
“Even though I was going through depression, I think when you have a relationship in the public eye, it’s like you don’t want to let your fans down," she said. "And everyone’s fairy tale was John and I getting married, Superman and Wonder Woman… so you just force yourself to believe it, too, even if you start to feel something different."
The lead-up to the decision is documented in the episode, where John doesn't show up to the wedding venue to make some final decisions. Nikki tells Brie that the wedding might be off again, and mounting frustration with the WWE wrestler leads to him giving Nikki a one-day deadline to decide what to do about the wedding. This frustrates Nikki further, leading her to fly to San Diego to talk it through with Brie.
"It’s tough ’cause he’s like fighting really hard for me. … The tables have kind of turned," she told her sister. "I didn’t give myself long enough the first time we broke up because I got so excited he wanted kids."
It's clearly a tough situation, but in the end, the emotional conclusion is that the two will call off the wedding again. You can watch an excerpt of it here:
Well, Nikki and John fans, although it doesn't look like there'll be nuptials anytime soon, let's hope it's not be off the cards forever.