Nikki Bella has put a rough end date on her in-ring career.
Speaking on the Nikki and Brie Show days after her return on WWE SmackDown, the WWE Hall of Famer said she is targeting the end of 2027 and wants to control how the run finishes.
“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?'”
She went further on what that means creatively.
“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 the other half of the goal is what she leaves behind.
“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.”
Bella returned on the July 24 edition of WWE SmackDown from Oakland Arena in Oakland, California, making the save for Brie Bella and Paige after Fatal Influence attacked them, and then challenging the group to a six-woman tag team match at SummerSlam. It was her first WWE television appearance since March 27, when she injured her left ankle in a tag match against Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss and was ruled out of WrestleMania 42.
Brie laid out the extent of it on the podcast, saying her sister finished the match on a broken ankle before the full damage was known.
“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 also relayed what the surgeon told her when she picked Nikki up after the operation.
“He 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.”
Bella was candid about the recovery.
“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.”
Bella said the mindset going into the return was different from previous comebacks.
“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.”
She had a specific song on repeat on the drive to Oakland and in her headphones before the run-in, Big Sean’s “I Don’t F*** With You” featuring E-40.
She also talked herself through the sprint to the ring, which she said is harder than it looks.
“I tell myself, you’re gonna run like the track superstar you used to be, and you’re gonna run fast. And whatever you decide to do in that ring, you are gonna do it, and you’re gonna remember who you used to be. So, and then you know having that song in my head, and then like going in, and that’s how I did it. I ran so fast. I was on a full sprint.”
Bella said the segment trended seventh worldwide and first in sports, and that WWE placed it fifth on its top 10 rundown.
Part of Bella’s promo referred to Fatal Influence crawling out of the minor leagues, meaning WWE NXT, and it drew pushback online. Bella said the reaction missed what the line was for.
“The internet is a very funny place. I mean, don’t get me wrong. A lot of people liked it. And I love what they’re saying to that community that hates me. And I’m like, do you understand how many people can’t make the minor leagues? Like every pro division, before you get to the pros, has the minors. Every league. And by the way, there’s a lot of people that can’t even make the minors. Also, in our league, you know how many people try out for NXT and can’t make it.”
“The heel team came in, that was their thing when they came in. They were sneaky. They sneaked up on everyone, so it was to give them the heat back.”
She said the timeline left almost no runway to build the match.
“We have no, no, two TVs to sell this match, and I’m like, so I knew, and I wanted to be the old Nikki Bella. I’m gonna hit it where it makes people rattle a bit, and I’m gonna sell this because we’re gonna take it to them, especially after what they did to you guys at MSG. Also, when are you, Paige, and I ever gonna get to compete at the level of SummerSlam against a team like this, Fatal Influence? I don’t know if that’ll ever happen again.”
Bella also brought up speculation that she or both Bella Twins will turn on Paige at SummerSlam, and a Paige post that played on it.
“Paige tweeted today, and so everyone’s talking about it. She goes, ‘There’ll be no heel turn, H-E-A-L,’ because she’s healed, and then it went over a bunch of people’s heads, and she goes, ‘Wow, guys, how did you not pick up on it?'”
Bella said she has been training with Aaron Solo, who has been travelling from the San Francisco area to work with her, and that the SmackDown return was after her fourth session with him. She plans two more before SummerSlam. Brie has been working with Bryan Danielson.
On merchandise, Bella said the “you can look, but you can’t touch” shirt was originally scheduled to debut at WrestleMania before the injury shelved it, and that the version that reached television was not what she designed.
“Now the shirt was supposed to be a crop, so when I got to TV and it was men’s, there was a miscommunication. So crops are coming, everyone.”
She said her niece Birdie helped tie the knots in the shirt backstage and asked to keep the one she made.
Bella also floated adding another name to the SummerSlam program.
“We need to get Blake Monroe into this picture somehow. I really need to, I really want to go after her, or she joins our team.”
SummerSlam takes place Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Paige facing Fatal Influence.
