Nikki Bella’s Shocking Health Scare — The Real Reason Behind Her WWE Retirement

WWE star Nikki Bella is opening up about her health issues, which led to her retirement from the WWE.

On Wednesday's episode of “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” Bella revealed that doctors found a cyst on her brain during a routine checkup. She shared, “For me, I really wanted to go back and fight for the tag titles. 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.”

She continued, “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. They were like, 'You're done, no more,' so I didn't get a choice, which sucks.”

The next day, Nikki went into more detail about the cyst while speaking with TMZ Sports. The 35-year-old shared, “They found a cyst on my brain, which thank God, it's benign.”

“It's super scary, it's something you're never gonna hear, but I'm so grateful,” Nikki pointed out. “I'm grateful for my health, I'm grateful it's benign. It's something that you have to watch out [for] for the rest of your life because you never know how it can change, but I'm definitely grateful because people go through it worse.”

Though she's “bummed” about her forced retirement, she didn't rule out the possibility of returning to the ring. She said, “I believe in miracles — you never know! We'll see what the man upstairs has in store for me.”

In March, Bella announced that she was retiring from the WWE on the season finale of “Total Bellas.” She told her family during a dinner, “I just feel like I'm too old for that travel. So I realized, like, 'Why am I doing this? I don't feel good.' I really am ready to hang up the jersey. Like, I can say it fully.”

“Being on the European tour, I've had a lot of time to think. Just how my body feels, being away from my company, how time-consuming this is,” Nikki admitted. “It's making me realize I am ready to fold the jersey and put it away. I'm ready to put the kicks aside and I'm ready to take Nikki Bella into a different direction.”

Four years before her retirement announcement, Bella underwent a risky surgery after breaking her neck. She told People, “All the girls would be like, 'Oh, we don't want to work with you. I don't want to re-injure you.' That kind of took me by surprise because I was like, 'Wait, what? I just had the toughest journey of my life, I came back in record time, and now people don't want to get in the ring with me?'”