Nikki Bella Targets End Of 2027 For WWE Retirement

Nikki Bella has put a rough date on the end of her in-ring career, saying on The Nikki & Brie Show that she hopes to retire by the end of 2027. The WWE Hall of Famer made her return to television on the July 24 episode of SmackDown after months on the sidelines with a serious ankle injury suffered following WrestleMania 42. She came to the defense of her sister Brie Bella and Paige after an attack from Fatal Influence, then issued a challenge for a six-woman tag match that WWE has since confirmed for Night 1 of SummerSlam.

On the podcast, Nikki said she can feel the finish line coming and wants to make sure she closes out her career on her own terms. “I’m coming close to the end,” she said. “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 added that she’s not interested in playing it safe creatively for the remainder of her run. “I want to challenge myself. I want to fight for myself. I want to stick up for what I believe in,” she said, framing the final stretch of her career around lifting up the women’s division and the talent coming up behind her. “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.”

Brie Bella also gave insight into just how badly Nikki was hurt before undergoing surgery, revealing that Nikki actually broke her ankle mid-match and kept wrestling through it. “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,” Brie said, noting that Nikki also tore ligaments and suffered a high ankle sprain in the process. According to Brie, the surgeon who treated Nikki said he had to rewatch the match twenty times just to understand how she finished it.

Nikki also opened up about the toll the recovery took on her mentally, describing bouts of frustration and tears during the early stages of rehab. She said this comeback feels different from past returns, crediting a shift in preparation and mindset for the renewed confidence she’s bringing back into the ring.

A 2027 retirement target gives WWE a defined runway to build toward one more meaningful chapter for Nikki Bella rather than an open-ended victory lap. It also raises the stakes for her upcoming SummerSlam appearance and whatever program follows, since every remaining moment now carries the weight of a career winding down. Given her long-standing role in growing the women’s division alongside Brie, expect WWE to lean into that legacy angle as her final year and a half plays out.