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Philadelphia Eagles hero Cooper DeJean has seemingly rubbished talk of a romance with Nikki Bella in brutal fashion after paying tribute to the WWE star’s ex-fiance.
Bella, 42, has been linked romantically to the 22-year-old NFL player after she was spotted at Philadelphia’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders at the weekend.
In a video highlighting her time at the game, the stunning wrestler – who is an Eagles fan – was seen sitting at DeJean’s locker inside the team’s changing room, leading to speculation that they are dating.
However, during their win over the Washington Commanders on Saturday night, DeJean appeared to shoot down the rumors by performing a celebration inspired by WWE legend John Cena – who was previously engaged to Bella.
After making a key interception in Washington, the cornerback mimicked Cena’s famous ‘five knuckle shuffle’ move on teammate Quinyon Mitchell in a moment which quickly went viral.
And during a postgame media scrum, he told reporters that the celebration was a tribute to Cena, who bowed out of the WWE last week.
Eagles hero Cooper DeJean has seemingly rubbished talk of a romance with Nikki Bella
DeJean performed a celebration inspired by WWE icon John Cena – who was engaged to Bella
‘The celebration? Tribute to John Cena, guy I watched growing up. Big WWE guy when I was a kid,’ he said.
‘So yeah, we had that one planned for a while, I just didn’t get picked.’
Cena and Bella, whose high-profile romance was documented in the Total Divas/Bellas reality series, got engaged in the ring at WrestleMania in 2017 after becoming a WWE super-couple.
Yet they called off the engagement the following year and went their separate ways after six years amid differences over marriage and children.
Shortly after the split, Cena went on the Today show with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb and professed his love for Garcia.
‘I love her,’ he said. ‘I want to be with her. I want to make her my wife. I want to be the father of her children. I just want us to work.’
His public admission of wanting to have children with Garcia was a surprise, as his dedication to not becoming a father was one of the key reasons that the couple split in the first place.
Back in June, Garcia recalled reuniting with her ex-fiance for the first time since calling off their engagement.
The former couple had crossed paths at the 2025 Royal Rumble in early February ‘seven [or] eight years’ after they had last seen each other.
DeJean performed the ‘five knuckle shuffle’ move Cena made famous throughout his career
Cena proposed to Bella in the ring at WrestleMania in 2017 (pictured) before splitting year later
Bella recently admitted she has not had ‘intimacy’ with any romantic partner for a long time
‘It was very quick,’ Garcia expressed on the Honestly Cavallari podcast, adding that it had been so out of ‘respect’ since the fellow pro wrestler is a ‘married man’ now with wife Shay Shariatzadeh.
On the latest episode of her and sister Brie Garcia’s SiriusXM podcast, Nikki suggested this week that love is not in the air for her right now as she has not had in intimacy in a ‘really long time’.
‘It’s crazy because I actually haven’t been touched or done anything in so long,’ she said in response to the DeJean rumors.
‘It’s funny when people call me a whore when I actually haven’t had intimacy in a really long time, even think of kissing.
‘I haven’t even kissed someone in so long. It’s, like, kind of crazy. I was thinking of this last night: “Do I know how to kiss?” You know when it’s been so long? I mean, I hope so. I’m about to make out with my pillow to make sure I still got it.’
To add to the speculation, DeJean was also recently in attendance at a WWE show in Philadelphia, with wrestler Grayson Waller brazenly claiming in a podcast that he was only there in the front row ‘because he wanted to see Bella.’
Meanwhile, in the wake of her Instagram post and Waller’s comments, fans were quick to pull up an old photo of Bella and DeJean together during the Eagles’ off-season training camp over the summer.
