Nikki Bella Cites Neck Injury for In-Ring Retirement

Nikki Bella discussed her decision to retire from the ring on debut episode of The Bellas Podcast. Discussing her return to WWE, she noted that her comeback was difficult and that her neck injury is what ultimately led to her retirement.

“Something we really couldn’t air on Total Bellas is that people didn’t realize how hard my comeback was for me to go back to a place that I called home and met the love of my life,” she said (per Sportskeeda). “…when they showed you that I made the decision [to retire] because I couldn’t hang with the girls in the ring anymore, what they also don’t air — because they never want me to talk about my neck — it is because of my neck.”

Bella compared her situation to Paige’s retirement due to her neck injury, noting, “You saw what happened to Paige. Paige and I have the same hardware. So if I was to get kicked in the back of the head, I would get paralyzed too or even worse.”