The Cena House Rules

The Cena House Rules is the 1st episode of Total Bellas. It aired on October 5, 2016.

Summary
Brie and Bryan move into John Cena's home to care for Nicole after her surgery in the series premiere of this "Total Divas" spin-off, which offers a glimpse into Nikki and Brie Bella's life outside the ring with their significant others and family. First up: John's strict house rules have the Bellas walking on eggshells to keep him happy.

Recap
So, to begin: Nikki Bella’s injured, John Cena’s injured, Daniel Bryan’s retired, Kathy Colace (aka Mama Bella) is engaged to John Laurinaitis himself, and Nikki, as we mentioned, is injured. We mention it twice because the nature of her injury — and the career-threatening surgery she undergoes to repair it — necessitates that The Fearless One’s entire extended family — Brie Bella, Bryan, and brother JJ — moves into Nikki and Cena’s mansion to act as some combination of moral support and caretaker team in the series premiere of E!’s Total Bellas. Unfortunately, bringing a family of wildly differing personalities under the singular, iron-fisted rule of the Cenation leader leads, predictably, to some conflict …

The problems for the crew start almost instantly, when Bryan bristles at the very vague purpose (“to help,” though no specifics are given) with which he and Brie have been summoned to Nikki’s home. The extended family decides to take it all in stride, however, until Cena lays out the regimented rules of the household, which as Brie points out, are so strict they stop just short of a designated curfew. The family themselves decides they’ll be able to work within Cena’s parameters, but Brie and Bryan’s dog, Josie, provides a bit of a wild card option. More on her later, though. First …

In the most revealing moment of the episode, it is revealed that Bryan, since his retirement, has become somewhat closed off. The Beard explains that losing the profession that has defined him has kicked off a grieving process of sorts for him, which means he basically needs an adjustment period before he feels like himself again. That doesn’t stop the Bellas and their family from gabbing about their comparatively robust relationships, which leaves poor JJ squirming during one particularly cringe-worthy happy hour.

Now, back to Josie. Brie and Bryan’s beloved pooch is frazzled by the move from almost the second she shows up, and it finally comes to a head when she bites Cena’s leg in a fit of panic. Cena’s stone-faced fury leaves Braniel shaken, but a solution is clearly required. Ultimately, they decide to build a dog run so Josie can have a space to let off some steam. Only problem is, neither Cena nor Nikki OK’ed the construction of said run, so when Nikki discovers their plan, it’s countdown to a showdown at a formal family dinner. At their wits’ end, Brie and Bryan are all set to call off the move-in experiment and head back home, but once it comes out at dinner that everyone is walking on eggshells around Cena, he acknowledges he’s a difficult person to live with but nobody should feel apprehensive about airing any grievances they have or suggesting something they think will help improve everyone’s quality of living. After all, he says, they’re stuck together for a while. Things are bound to go wrong at some point. Oh boy