WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella is opening up about the lingering physical toll of her career, revealing that she is dealing with permanent nerve damage and a complete loss of feeling in her thumb following a botched mid-match maneuver.
Bella discussed the injury during a recent episode of The Nikki & Brie Show, which featured Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Landon Dickerson as a special guest. While comparing notes on sports injuries, Bella explained that a scheduled surgery for the digit never materialized, causing the condition to worsen over time.
“I was supposed to get my thumb done, and they never, and look at that,” Bella said on the podcast. “It’s just completely out. I have no feeling now in it.”
Recalling how the injury happened, Bella pointed to a routine defensive sequence involving a victory roll pin.
“I was literally in a match, and there’s this super quick pin… the victory roll,” she explained. “And so, if you’re a bad guy, the good guy jumps on your shoulders and quickly flips through your legs and flips you, but puts you in a pin. And if they don’t go quick enough, it’s almost harder.”
According to Bella, her thumb became trapped as her opponent executed the rolling motion, bending the joint backward while the pin was being locked in.
“And my opponent didn’t do it, but so as like, we’re going through, my thumb got caught, but she still was going through and had me pinned, and my thumb was still, like, way back there,” Bella recalled.
The severity of the damage was immediately apparent backstage, though Bella noted that medical personnel initially brushed off the severity of the trauma.
“And I came back and it was, like, hanging, and I was like, ‘Oh, you know, doc, like, hey, yeah, my thumb.’ Like, ‘You’ll be fine,’” she said.
Decades later, the physical deformity remains obvious. “Still looks like it’s hanging,” Bella added. “It is hanging. It never went back.”
Despite the permanent loss of feeling in her thumb, Bella is stepping right back into the squared circle. She is officially scheduled to make her return to the ring this Friday, October 16, facing Paige on WWE SmackDown live from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
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