Artem Chigvintsev Addresses “Controversial” Introduction To Nikki Bella

Artem Chigvintsev recently appeared on The Bellas Podcast where he talked about first meeting Nikki Bella. When they were initially paired together on Dancing With The Stars, Nikki was in a relationship with John Cena. However, Artem has admitted he fell in love with her from that moment.

"Obviously, I mean Nicole might feel a little different. But to me, just the meeting, that was the one thing that kind of tripped me out. I know it's very controversial and at this point, whatever, I don't really care," he said. "I think meeting Nicole for the first time, I actually called the executive producer right after our first meet, I even said, 'Wow. This girl is actually incredible.'

"Actually, I said, 'I think I'm like, in love.' I don't really understand what it meant for me at the time. Just when you meet a certain person that you kind of don't really understand how you feel yet, you have a lot of feelings. You don't know how to cope with it or what to do with it," Artem reflected. "And you just try to manage it as well as you can in the best way you can. Again, look, I'm not perfect. Obviously. But, I think that was the time it kind of hit me. Even speaking about it right now I am sweating."

Nikki Bella then spoke about that first meeting, which actually never made it to the show. That's because it was filmed at Rikishi's training facility, and WWE wanted things to have better lighting.

"It's on the internet somewhere, actually. They never even aired it because WWE was like, 'we need something that looks way more elevated.' Because, we were in a training facility, we were in The Uso's dad's place because it's outside of L.A. and they do tiny shows. You know, a school," she added. "They literally built this mini stage but there were no lights. When WWE it saw they were like, 'no, they need to come to Monday Night Raw and we will do it there.'"

Artem then talked about his experience with pro wrestling. He and Nikki appeared on Monday Night Raw where he received a bodyslam.

"The thing is that people don't know, I don't really know how to wrestle at all," he said. "You also have to understand, and I don't know if this is something I can speak or not, on the actual wrestling ring it's quite bouncy, so it's quite nice when you land. Remember, it's a hardwood floor when you dance. So that flip, also mind we have to rehearse that, it's not like we can just go, 'oh you're going to flip me and then it's done.' We have done it multiple times. It legitimately hurts, it actually did hurt."

If you use any quotes from this article please credit The Bellas Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.