Brie Bella says her SummerSlam match was close to being stopped after she broke her scapula, and that she talked her way out of it so her sister could finish the match the way they had planned.
Bella was hurt during the six-woman tag on night one at U.S. Bank Stadium, where she teamed with Nikki Bella and Paige against Fatal Influence. She held her right arm for the rest of the match and through the post-match angle in which the Bellas turned on Paige, and confirmed on Monday that she had broken her right scapula.
Speaking on her YouTube vlog, she described what was going on around her at the time.
“I don’t know if it’s because we’re people pleasers, but the whole time in my head I’m like, ‘No, I got to stay in so Nikki can get the hot tag.’ They were telling me, ‘Stay down.’ Or they were thinking about calling the match.”
“I’m like, ‘No, no, no.’ Even though I was in crazy pain, all I could think about was, ‘Nikki’s got to hit that comeback.'”
She did not say who was telling her to stay down.
The injury appeared to happen when a Jacy Jayne cannonball drove her shoulder into the steel steps at ringside. Nothing has been said by anybody to suggest it was anything other than a normal exchange.
Bella was taken to hospital after the show. Triple H confirmed the injury at the post-show press conference, saying she had been treated at the venue and sent for scans. Nikki said on Busted Open Radio the following day that she had been told to say nothing until her sister spoke for herself, which Bella did on Instagram on Monday.
She has not put a timeframe on her recovery and WWE has not announced one.
The timing is difficult for both sisters. Nikki had only just come back from a broken ankle suffered in March, and SummerSlam was her first match in months. Brie, 42, returned full-time at the Royal Rumble in January and won the Women’s Tag Team Championship with Paige at WrestleMania 42, the first tag titles of her WWE career, before losing them to Fatal Influence in July. Both Bellas signed new two-year contracts earlier this year and have described them as their last before retirement.
