Back in March Nikki Bella officially confirmed that after more than a decade in and out of the business, she was officially retiring from professional wrestling due to a neck issue and a cyst on her brain. On the latest episode of The Bellas Podcast, Nikki and her sister Brie revealed that even though the two hadn’t appeared since Evolution in Ocotober, WWE had plans for them after WrestleMania 35 back in April.
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“So Brie and I, we were gonna come back and fight for the tag titles after WrestleMania and we were gonna go against The IIconics for a few months — it was gonna be a lot of fun, really excited and you know, deep down inside, I kept having this weird feeling that I needed to get an X-ray on my neck, because for a while I wasn’t feeling okay,” Nikki explained. “Brie knows, that in December, after Evolution, I just kept telling her, ‘Brie, I feel off’. Like, my head doesn’t feel right and I just kept feeling off and I even told her, ‘Do you think I’m just super unhealthy?’ But I live a very healthy lifestyle but I couldn’t figure it out.”
Brie added that the feud with Billie Kay and Peyton Royce was supposed to start as early as the episode of SmackDown Live two nights after WrestleMania at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
The Bellas initially returned from hiatus at SummerSlam and quickly kicked off a feud with Ronda Rousey, which led to the former UFC Champion beating Nikki at Evolution. In a separate episode of the podcast, Nikki described how miserable she was during that run.
“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.”
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