The WWE Hall of Famer talks recovery, reinvention, and why Madam Paleta — 100% blue agave, women-owned and naturally infused — was the only tequila deal that ever passed her test.
Despite having a lovely head of hair, Nikki Garcia is a woman who rocks many hats. Most recognize her as one-half of the Bella Twins (alongside her real-life twin sister, Brie), a WWE Hall of Famer and two-time Divas champion who helped inspire a generation of women to become wrestling fans (and WWE Superstars) through Total Divas and Total Bellas, the reality shows she was part of during her time at WWE. She’s a mother, an Eagles fan and an entrepreneur, launching everything from apparel (Birdiebee) and body care (Nicole + Brizee) to wine (Bonita Bonita) companies, as well as The Bellas Podcast, which now calls SiriusXM home.
Nikki made her return to WWE at the 2025 Royal Rumble, with Brie making her return a year later at the 2026 Royal Rumble, which led to the Bella Twins being lined up for a WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 42. Still, a nasty ankle injury has kept Nikki away from Brie, who recently won the aforementioned titles in Las Vegas.
In between podcasting and physical therapy, Nikki has taken on a new role as the chief margarita officer at Madam Paleta, a tequila brand founded in 2023 that’s owned and operated by women. “Everyone knows me with my women and my women empowerment,” Nikki told Boardroom during a conversation about her recovery, her mission with Madam Paleta and whether there are any more hats she wants to try on.
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Boardroom: Before we get into anything, how are you doing? I know you recently had surgery. What’s your situation like right now?
Nikki Garcia: So I was super pumped because today I got a squat for the first time. Obviously, I kind of look like a baby deer a little bit. [But I’m] kind of strong, and the weight was a little light, but I was super fired up because last week I moved up to the level in PT where I get to start focusing on strengthening, and I still have to do all the other stuff for the ankle, but that felt great. I get X-rays and all the checkups mid-June, and so now I’m focusing on having the strength meet the healing. I didn’t realize what a process broken ankles are! And then having the sprain and the tear on top of it, doing the three in one, and I’m like, “This is a lot of work. It’s a full-time job.”
Has it been difficult trying to find time to make sure you can get that PT?
Oh my gosh, yes. I was telling my PT guy on Saturday, he’s like, “Did you get everything in? I know you were in Nashville doing stuff.” I go, “Yeah,” I go, “even when we came back after the bars and all of us girls were talking, eating chips, I was making sure I was doing all my exercises.” And he was like, “What?” And I’m like, “Hey, I got it in. I found time to get the second session in.”
It’s a lot of work. I thought this time, being injured, I was going to have this zen moment and it’s going to be easy. Days are more full, but that’s OK. I’m getting stronger, which is kind of crazy because what I’ve realized is you focus on things that you didn’t focus on before. So hey, you kind of move your hips or your feet like this when you’re squatting. Let’s work on this and it’ll actually make you stronger. You know what I mean? So I’m excited to see how I’m going to be. I feel like I’m going to be even stronger than I was coming out of this.
In speaking about how much you’ve been doing and following what you’ve been doing over the years, I have to ask: How the hell does one get to become a chief margarita officer of a brand? Congrats on that, but how does that happen?
Thank you. Well, I think it’s been having a lot of experience drinking a lot of margaritas over the past two decades. [laughs] I’ve earned that title. Having some Mexican roots has helped a lot, too. I have to say, it’s been one of my favorite titles yet. I’ve been a tequila connoisseur for a long time. It’s wine [and] tequila — that’s my vibes. Those are my drinks.
I’ve always wanted to partner up with a tequila brand; it’s always made sense, right? Mexican, love tequila, actually drink it; I’m obsessed with my spicy, skinny margs. But there was no brand that just made sense. Everything that would come to me or opportunities I had a chance to invest in, one, I’m really big about it being clean, especially being in my 40s. I’m not drinking anything that’s not clean, because then you’re going to give me a hangover for days, and I’m not going to be happy.
Exactly.
So it’s like you have to have clean stuff. So that’s my first check mark, Madam Paleta, 100% blue agave. Check. Run by women? Everyone knows me with my women and my women empowerment, so that was like five checks. And it’s an incredible group of people. Then an opportunity to showcase my Mexican roots? Another check. And it was just, you know me: I like to make history, and I never thought I’d be about infused tequila — naturally, by the way.
So then I wanted to taste it and I put it over ice because you have to taste the stuff bare, and I was shocked, because I’m not a shot taker. I couldn’t believe how good it was. I’m like, “OK, here’s a whitespace that I have the opportunity to not only be an investor in, but the face of — chief margarita officer — but actually grow it and take over a space that hasn’t been taken over.”
When this one came to me, it was one of those moments when you go, “Oh wait, that’s right.” You know when your gut’s like, “OK, this works. This is it.”
It just makes a lot of sense. I was looking at the flavors. Growing up in the area I live in, I’ve been fortunate enough to drink a lot of tamarind juice. So seeing a tamarind-infused tequila, I was shocked. I’d never really seen it like that before.
Right? OK. I was, too, and it’s my favorite. It’s the one that I keep in my house. [Nikki proceeds to pull out a bottle.] Then I was with one of my girls the other day, and we [had] this margarita that you can make with the tamarind, because I do like spicy, spicy skinny. This was so good. So I had my friend drink it. I go, “Just taste this because I love it. I need to know from a random.” She goes, “This is so good.” I’m like, “I know, right?” I’m like, “I could drink this bare, but now, what I just made, I could drink so many of them.” You know when you get the spicy but refreshing, you’re like, “OK, this is a major win for me.” But yeah, that one’s my favorite out of all three.
You’re stepping out into a lot of different arenas, and it’s been interesting to see you and Brie step into the world of podcasting. What’s it been like embracing that?
It’s been incredible. I mean, it’s crazy to think we’ve had our show now for maybe almost nine years, and we’ve grown incredibly with SiriusXM. It’s been fun, because we own our show, so we have a lot of creative input. Brie and I just knew, when it first came to us, they’re like, “We could tell you two love talking.” We’re like, “We do.” “And when you talk to people, somehow they just lower their guard and they just chat with you guys.” And we’re like, “Yeah,” because we’re the type, we don’t try to get a headline on someone. We’re not there for the dirty stuff. We just want to chat. And you end up finding out something about someone — they just kind of open up to us.
Brie and I, at the end of our day, when the kids are out of the house, we’ve always said it would be fun to end this journey and this career with a talk show or be something like this. So that’s how we always saw this, but now we’re like, we just love what we do because we go into different SiriusXM studios. We were just in Nashville. So we had three incredible artists come in, and we take over the space where it’s a stage, and it feels not just like a podcast, but more like a show.
We brought incredible advertising in, where it’s not just about advertising on a quick ad throughout the show. It’s bigger when we bring it socially. And Brie and I had that idea for years, and we really kept going, “You guys, why are we not expanding this?” We have such a big platform, and I’ve met the coolest people in the world. I’ve sat with people that I’m like, “I used to watch you on a TV show 15 years ago, and now we’re just chatting like we’re buds.” It’s so cool, and it’s fun to think of ideas. I was pitching the other day like, “Hey, NFL season’s coming up. Why don’t we go to Philly and interview some of the Eagles for two weeks leading into the season?” And I’ll selfishly do things knowing I want to do it. “Hey, let’s go to Stagecoach, and come on, guys, get us up on stage.”
It is crazy, the connection. I also like that we have the control to impact people. We all get to decide in that 45 minutes, 35, 25, 60, whatever it might be, what message we’re going to put out, what we’re going to leave people with. And I really love that about podcasting.
Ten, 15 years ago, I can’t imagine you’d be thinking you’d be in a spot where, “Hey, I can have this position at a tequila brand, have a podcast with my sister.” It’s got to be dope just to be able to express yourself within the stuff that you love and have that turn into the stuff that is paying the mortgage.
I think, when I look at Brie and me, and I’m so grateful for it. I had the mindset when I realized with WWE, I’m like, “This is about connection.” You’re going to get over with the fans. That is true, authentic connection. You can’t force it. You can’t force it with the WWE Universe at all. And we naturally connected with them. When the Bella Army grew globally, it was because of its authenticity. For Brie and me, it’s never been about fame, and it wasn’t about money. It was about just connection, like, “Hey guys, cheers or boos.” And then opportunities started to come with that, and our mindset was, “How can we make it better for women?” So it still wasn’t about fame or money, and everything started to come. And I feel, as we were growing as entrepreneurs, we kept our morals and our passion and authenticity in that.
So if a brand came to us and we didn’t believe in them, we’re like, “Damn, that money sounds so good, but no, we got to say no.” One time, with Carl’s Jr., she’s like, “Factory farm meat!” I’m like, “I want to wash the car.” [laughs] I’m like, “Oh my God, you’re killing me. I’ve had a Super Bowl commercial on my vision board since [I was] 18.” But anyway, so things come and go.
What I have felt has made us so strong now, being in our 40s and I get to look at myself as an entrepreneur, anything that I’ve backed, I believe in, and I’ve made mistakes. I have made so many mistakes as an entrepreneur, and I’ve learned from them and I’ve realized: You have to stay you and believe in you, and that’s what works. Sometimes things don’t work. But what I’ve realized is to stay a great mom and to stay sane and balanced, I have to do things that naturally fit my life. I drink tequila, so this makes sense.
One more question: Are you good right now, or are there specific goals that you may be working toward?
As of now, I’m good. My goal here is I want everyone across the U.S. to be able to buy [Madam Paleta]. Right now, you can get it shipped to you, but I want you to go walk in. So that’s the mission for me over the next few years, and I hope to get it globally, because I hate leaving out my Bella Army globally. I hate it. They’ll always be like, “But why not us?” That’s my mission. The minute that happens, then I know I’ll have space for something new. But as of now with all my other things that I have, I’m like, that’s it for now. So my sister will be like, “But how about a man?” No, I don’t got time for a man, that’s going to have to wait. Bring him in a few years. I don’t need him now.
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