I think the only reason a bunch of people liked her and said she was as great as she was is because they really didn't have many good female wrestlers. She would be a casual jobber with the women they have now. I never understood the appeal in her at all.
I would say her borderline personality disorder was a hit back then. I think It was unusual and made people want to love her as a heel. I thought she played the admirable psycho well and I would say that as a diva, she was fearless in her own way. She was a good speaker as well, posessing the same kind of fiesty, rebellious spirit as CM Punk. I see why she married him very clearly. They both have similar passions and both can channel their hatred well.
I'm pretty sure the WWE writing put a spoke in her wheel, fearing she'd rain an acid storm on the company that it couldn't deal with, so they quickly subsidized her for the more popular divas, who could be moulded more easily and had the prestige of being hooked up with either top guys or people with influence.
Now, I'd like to make a subtitled video of the pipebomb on youtube to add the ambiance of the fallout from the promo. My youtube account is up and running, I've gotten much of what the Bellas were yelling, but parts of Nikki's verbal assault remains unclear to me. I'm no lipreader and some of her words are obscured by either background noise or her sister. Can you please help me fill in the blanks of Nikki's dialogue and any other missing pieces of the puzzle?