When Nikki Bella left the wrestling ring for good earlier this year, it wasn’t her decision.
On Wednesday’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the “Total Bellas” star revealed that she had high hopes to return to the WWE and capture the Women’s Tag Team Championship title with her twin sister, Brie Bella, this year. But before going after her dream, she first wanted to get her persistent neck problems checked out.
“For me, I really wanted to go back and fight for the tag titles,” she explained. “I’ve always had my neck issues, and after neck surgery, it hasn’t been OK. And so, I feel like I needed to get a checkup before we went back for the tag titles.”
When Nikki got her results back, things were worse than she’d thought.
“I herniated the disc above where I had surgery, I have all this inflammation around the metal and I have a cyst on my brain,” she told Jimmy. “They were like, ‘You’re done. No more. You’re out.’ So, I didn’t get a choice, which sucks.”
While a brain cyst is alarming news to receive from a doctor, Nikki’s luckily was cancer-free.
“They found a cyst in my brain, which, thank god, is benign,” she clarified to TMZ Sports the day after her “Tonight Show” appearance.
While the onetime “Dancing with the Stars” contestant admitted that it was “super scary” to find out about her cyst, she stressed that her most important takeaway was gratitude.
“I’m so grateful. I’m grateful for my health. I’m grateful it’s benign. It’s something that you have to watch out for the rest of your life, because you never know how it can change. But I’m definitely grateful, because people go through worse,” she said.
Nikki has a lot to focus on post-WWE, including “Total Bellas,” “The Bellas Podcast” and her and Brie’s Birdiebee clothing brand – not to mention her budding romance with “DWTS” pro Artem Chigvintsev. And while the 35-year-old is already embracing her new chapter, she still holds a small glimmer of hope that she may get back in the ring one day.
“I believe in miracles, you never know!” she told TMZ of a possible WWE return – that is, if she ever gets the medical go-ahead. “You never know! We’ll see what the man upstairs has in store for me.”
WATCH: Nikki Bella Admits Her ‘Cheeks Were Burning’ After Sister Brie ‘Grilled’ Her & Artem Chigvintsev