Nikki Bella has set the end of 2027 as the finishing line for her WWE career.
After being on the sidelines with an ankle injury since March 2026 and having to sit out WrestleMania 42, Nikki Bella made her return to WWE. This was on the July 24 episode of SmackDown. She ran in to save her twin sister, Brie Bella, and Paige from a post-match attack by Fatal Influence.
After taking them out, Nikki Bella grabbed a microphone and challenged Fatal Influence to a six-woman tag team match at SummerSlam. WWE made it official for Night 1 on August 1.
The WWE Hall of Famer explains why she sees the end of 2027 as the endpoint of her in-ring career
Nikki Bella opened up about her return on the latest episode of the Nikki and Brie Show. She also admitted that she’s getting closer to the end of her career. She sees the end of 2027 as a possible finishing line and wants to finish things her way, while putting other female stars over in the process.
“You know, I’m coming close to the end. Like, and I know I’ve talked about this, but I am like, and I’m very great with that. Like, you know, year and a half, like whatever it is, the end of 2027, and I really just want to finish this out exactly how I want it. I want, you know, if I gotta break rules, I’m gonna break rules. But I want to end it how I see it, so I don’t look back and go, ‘What if?’” Nikki Bella said.
“Like creatively, if I feel a certain way, I want to do it. I don’t want to like sit there and go, oh, but follow the rules and be a good girl. Like I want to challenge myself. I want to fight for myself. I want to stick up for what I believe in,” Bella said.
“And I want to continue to be a part of great changes for women’s wrestling, and constantly making women’s wrestling feel important and special. And while I’m doing great things, bringing other people up with me to do great things.”
“I don’t just speak the talk of empowering women. I truly love to empower women, and it’s such a great group right now. And whatever I can give while also being a bad bitch, I’m all game,” Nikki Bella said.
Brie Bella detailed the extent of Nikki’s injury
Brie Bella then chimed in and explained how Nikki Bella finished the match with the injury. She also highlighted that the full extent of the injury was unknown till she got evaluated. Brie Bella also revealed what the surgeon told her when she picked her sister up after the surgery.
“You broke your ankle wrestling in the ring, continued on for eight minutes with a broken ankle, then went to New York from Pittsburgh to do a run-in, knowing it was taped up, and you in your heart knew, and in your gut it’s broken, but hoping maybe it was a sprain or something. No, then you end up going, realizing not only did you break your ankle, you tore ligaments, and you had a high sprain. You did three things,” Brie Bella said.
“He (the surgeon) goes, ‘I had to go watch that match back 20 times because I don’t know how she kept wrestling with everything she did to her ankle.’ He literally said he had to watch the match 20 times. This is a high level surgeon who works on pro baseball players, pro football players, like you name it.”
Nikki Bella got candid about her recovery and return
Speaking further, Nikki Bella detailed her emotional recovery process and how her mindset for the return differed from her previous comebacks.
“I remember in the beginning when I was healing, how many times I would cry in the day of being in pain and being like, ‘Dude, this is gonna be really hard.’ Like I just I knew it, and I would at times I get so frustrated and be like, ‘Why me?’ Like the times when I had to be on my back for like two weeks, I just was like this. I tried not to go down the road, it’s unfair and this and why, but I remember just crying, going, ‘Is this ever gonna feel better?’ Because it was just so painful,” Nikki Bella said.
“Let me tell you something about this comeback now. It’s different, everything just feels different. The preparation, the mindset, the confidence. Remembering who the f I am. Like no, no, no, you are that bad bitch, Nikki Bella, and no more being like nice and yay, I’m excited to be here.” [H/T WrestlingNews.co]
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