Pre-Season Spotlight on Nikki Bella & Artem Chigvintsev

Pre-Season Spotlight On

Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev

Every day from now until the Season 25 premiere we’ll be posting new content on the blog, including spotlights on every couple set to take the ballroom floor this fall!

Today’s pre-season couple spotlight is all about WWE fighter Nikki Bella and her partner Artem Chigvintsev! Nikki is the stage name for one half of The Bella Twins wrestling team, along with her twin sister Brie Bella! Together, the twins also appeared as a cast member on the reality show Total Divas on E!. Her partner Artem is a champion of the British version of Dancing With the Stars called Strictly Come Dancing, and is currently on his sixth season of being a professional dancer on the American version!

Bentley I’m not all that into WWE, but sometimes I like to pretend like I’m a megafan sometimes because that’s what’s trendy, right? XD All of my prior knowledge about Nikki Bella is nothing but positive, but to be honest, I didn’t fully remember who she was until I heard that she was John Cena’s fiancée. But I’m glad I’m going to get to know her more. She is clearly a beast when it comes to anything athletic, so I don’t see any problems there, and based off of things I’ve heard about her, she seems like a pretty cool person, too. I just hope that the older audience snatches onto her like they did with Paige VanZant back in season 22, who is another badass, but in the UFC world. Sometimes older viewers don’t pay attention to the athletes (at least as far as I can tell), but maybe she’ll be an outlier like Paige was! Luckily for her, though, she has Artem Chigvintsev, which many older viewers love to death. Maybe not as much as Val or Maks, but still quite a bit. This is a new challenge for Artem on this show, because I think this is going to be one of his best partners yet!

And by the way, Artem, you chose an interesting choice for your new hair color. I never pegged you as a blonde, but you can pull it off! :P

Julia Lol Artem’s hair is so polarizing right now. XD But personally I think I’m #TeamBrunette. :P

Dwtsdreams I am so excited to see Nikki Bella kill it on the dance floor. I am only into WWE if it has to do with the Bella Twins. I love Nikki because she is such a strong and independent woman. She is so athletic, which will aid her tremendously in hopefully getting into the Semi-Finals. I think she will surprise people with her dance ability.

Julia It took me a minute to realize who Nikki Bella was, but once I did I got so excited! Apparently she has some dance experience (not sure the extent but I think I’d consider her a low-level ringer) so she should be fun to watch. I was surprised she got Artem and not Maks/Gleb/Keo but so far they seem like a good match. Nikki has been doing a lot of videos and livestreams on social media, and she’s quite different than I expected. I thought she was going to be “tough as nails” and lack the warmth needed for the audience to connect to and support her, but she’s actually very bubbly and sweet. I was initially thinking she’d be a shook boot around Week 6-7 but now I believe she can get further if her sunny personality shines through and Artem gives her choreography that people are going to remember well enough to vote for. Something I’ve noticed with Artem is that his choreo tends to be on the more traditional side of things. That worked very well on Strictly Come Dancing, but DWTS viewers tend to like more pizazz and modern touches in routines. It’s pretty much “open season” with this cast, and most of the contestants seem to be on a more even playing field than usual in the dance department, so pleasing the audience is going to be extra important here.