How Long Had John Cena Been Planning to Propose to Nikki Bella?

John Cena and Nikki Bella kiss on ‘SmackDown Live.’ (WWE.com)

John Cena proposed to Nikki Bella at WrestleMania 33 on Sunday night. So how long had Cena been preparing to pop the question?

During an appearance on Today this morning, John Cena reiterated what he said at WrestleMania itself: that he had been planning to propose to Nikki Bella since January 2016. This was when Bella had to undergo serious neck surgery.

Cena explained that prior to the surgery, there was a period of about 20 minutes when Nikki Bella was under anesthesia, and Cena knew that she would not remember anything he told her. And so he said to her, “You know I’m going to marry you some day.”

According to Cena’s story, Nikki Bella spent months and months afterwards asking him what he said to her before the surgery because she could not remember. Cena simply said he would tell her when the time was right, and at WrestleMania 33, the time was right.

This makes it sound as if John Cena was only pretending that he did not want to get married on Total Divas and Total Bellas, the E! reality series on which it has been a major storyline that John Cena won’t marry Nikki Bella. Long after January 2016, John Cena has been saying that he does not want to get married, with the reason being that Nikki Bella wants to have kids and he doesn’t.

Cena had even been saying this in interviews with the news media, telling Rolling Stone in April 2016 that he’s serious about not wanting to get married. This interview would have taken place several months after Cena apparently decided he was going to marry Nikki Bella.

“I’ve been upfront about this,” Cena told Rolling Stone. “I just have things I need to get done. It’s not negotiable. We’ve been to therapy over it. I don’t think it will ever be over with…I don’t want kids, I don’t want marriage. That’s me just saying, ‘Hey, this is my life and this is how I’m going to live.’”

Cena has not revealed at what point he decided he was going to propose to Nikki Bella in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania, but this had clearly been in the works since at least January 2016; that’s when we started to hear rumors that John Cena and Nikki Bella would fight in a tag-team match at WrestleMania and that Cena would propose afterwards.