Back in March on an episode of Total Bellas, former Divas Champion Nikki Bella officially announced her retirement from professional wrestling. The announcement came somewhat as a surprise, as the idea of The Bella Twins making a return at some point to challenge for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships seemed like a no-brainer. But as she explained in an interview on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon this week, there was actually a medical reason behind Bella’s retirment.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“For me, I really wanted to go back and fight for the tag titles,” Bella said. “I’ve always had my neck issues and after neck surgery, it hasn’t been okay. I feel like I needed to get a checkup before we went back for the tag titles. The results came back and I herniated the disc above where I had surgery, I have all this inflammation around the metal and then I have a cyst on my brain. So they were like, ‘you’re done, no more.’ So I didn’t get a choice, which sucks.”
Bella’s last televised match took place a the all-women’s Evolution pay-per-view back in October 2018. She then went on to perform at a handful of live events, the last of which was on Nov. 9.
Back in April she explained on an episode of The Bellas Podcast that her last run in WWE wasn’t particularly enjoyable, in large part to her incredibly public breakup with John Cena.
“When I came back to wrestle for WWE Evolution storyline, and we didn’t get a chance to discuss it in detail on Total Bellas, but it was really hard on me because of having a breakup,” Bella said. “I felt like I went back way too soon, and every week I was so depressed and miserable, and every time I entered that arena I had to force a smile on my face,” stated Nikki. “I was just so sad because the person that was the love of my life [John Cena]… that was my home, that was where we started, so I was actually happy that we became heels because then I didn’t have to put that forced smile on my face and I could act like a b–, you know what I mean?”
“Having that comeback, filming Total Bellas, running three companies and then fighting Ronda Rousey and beating up my body… I just remember when we were sitting there on our 35th birthday. I just sat there and said to myself that I was done,” she continued. “I started thinking about my health and my age. I need to put more focus on my companies, so honestly, that was the reason why I retired. This is the thing about WWE though; the doors are truly never closed.”
