“When he walked away, all the girls were like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” she continued, adding she wanted to “respect” John’s space as he’s now married to wife Shay Shariatzadeh. “And that was it. It was great because [we were] breaking the ice and we both happened to be back at [WWE] at the same time. It’s a good feeling.”

According to Nikki, this experience was more pleasant than their previous run-in at the same event in 2018. At the time, Nikki said the moment—which was captured on her and her sister Brie Garcia’s former E! show, Total Bellas—was “hard” to go through, as she was trying to put on a brave face for the Royal Rumble crowd.

“Because of all the John stuff, I feel like I’ve been on such an emotional roller coaster,” Nikki said at the time. “And today has been like double that. I’m going to be a part of this major historic moment, but I can’t help but have all this John stuff on my mind.”