Here's Why the Marriage Between John Cena and Nikki Bella Couldn't Work

Rivalries in professional wrestling can get very personal. As the Women's Intercontinental Champion, Becky Lynch knew how to get under the skin of her first challenger after SummerSlam 2025. Nikki Bella was ready to take the belt away from The Man. However, the iconic Superstar never expected Becky to make fun of her former engagement to John Cena.

After an amusing mixed tag team match at WrestleMania 33, John asked Nikki to marry him in front of a packed stadium. The former Divas Champion was happy to say yes. Unfortunately, the relationship wouldn't last for long after the spectacular proposal. What happened between Nikki Bella and John Cena? Here's what we know about why one of the most popular engagements in wrestling couldn't turn into a marriage.

When John Cena and Nikki Bella realized that their marriage wouldn't work, John released a statement through Us Magazine. The future member of the WWE Hall of Fame explained that both he and his fiancée were very famous people, and they didn't want to hold each other back. As professional wrestlers and public figures, sometimes it became hard for the couple to see each other over the course of months.

Here's what John Cena had to say about his relationship with Nikki Bella when it came to an end: "While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another." The multiple-time world champion also asked wrestling fans to respect their privacy after the separation. It was evident that John still respected Nikki very much after what happened.

Another reason the couple split was because Nikki didn't feel comfortable when it came to having children with John Cena. The wrestler believed it would have been hard to raise a kid when taking into account their busy lifestyles. Here's what Nikki had to say about the situation, according to People: "I just knew that I didn't want to bring a child into a relationship that I didn't know if this life was right for them and I went with it, and then Artem came waltzing into my life."

John and Nikki were able to find happiness with other people after their own engagement couldn't work. John met an engineer named Shay Shariatzadeh while he was working on the production of Playing With Fire. The couple eventually got married in 2020, a few years before John announced that he was retiring from professional wrestling.

Unfortunately, the story for Nikki Bella was very different. The wrestler started dating Artem Chigvintsev after working with him in Dancing With the Stars. The couple got married in 2022, two years after the birth of their first child. That was before Artem was booked into Napa County Jail on a felony domestic violence charge. The couple got divorced soon after.

Years after their engagement went viral on the internet, John Cena and Nikki Bella continued to find success in the WWE. In 2025, John continued to appear as part of his retirement tour, working through select events before calling it quits for good. Nikki returned to prove her skills during an era of women's wrestling that looked very different from what she was used to. Even if their engagement couldn't work, both Nikki and John are beloved by fans of the WWE from all over the world.