Nikki Bella made a triumphant return to singles action on WWE RAW for the first time in seven years, defeating Chelsea Green with her signature Rack Attack 2.0. The match, which aired on the July 14, 2025 episode, marked Nikki’s first one-on-one bout on RAW since 2018. However, fans quickly noticed an awkward moment during the finish, prompting Nikki to clarify what happened shortly afterward on social media.

Taking to Twitter/X, Nikki revealed that the stumble was due to muscle memory kicking in as she accidentally went for the original version of the move that led to her neck surgery. “Exactly muscle memory is insane! I haven’t done that since before neck surgery!” she wrote.

She elaborated further in WWE’s official RAW recap, opening up about the physical and emotional reality of her return:

“I knew I was not going to go in tonight and be perfect. I knew I was not gonna be an Iyo Sky, I was not gonna be a Rhea Ripley. I was not gonna be a Bayley, I was not even gonna be a Chelsea Green. But what I did know going in there was, give it your best. It has been seven years. You have had a baby. You have not been in that ring. And, you know, people do not understand how hard it is to be in there. Wrestling conditioning is different than anything. Even if you are going to train for the Olympics, there is something different in what we do. So I was very blown up, but I gave it my all.”

Nikki described the moment muscle memory took over and she hoisted Green up for the original Rack Attack, despite not performing it since 2016 due to the neck injury it caused.

“What is crazy is everyone kept telling me backstage, ‘it is going to be like riding an old bike.’ Well, yeah, it was like riding such an old bike that I went and put Chelsea up in my old Rack Attack that broke my neck. And what was weird is I have not hit that since 2016. So it was weird that I naturally turned her and put her up. And the slight second I go, ‘this is what broke my neck.’ Even when I came back from my broken neck, I never did that. I never once did that. She just was like, ‘are you okay?’ But that was very wild to me… We have these moments where we are not perfect. Still got the victory, and that is what counts.”

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