WWE News: Nikki Bella Told Rack Attack Move Caused Injury, Still A While From Returning To The Ring

WWE Diva Nikki Bella has been out with an injury for a little while now. It seems ever since she dropped the WWE Diva’s Championship to Charlotte, she has been absent from WWE programming and no one really knew why. The thought was that she was dealing with a few minor injuries, but it appears as though she was dealing with a neck injury that could be career threatening.

According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, the injury Nikki is going through may very well be due to her own finishing move called “the rack attack.” Used as way to crush a girl’s ribs, Nikki would pick up a woman and put her on her shoulders and fall to her knees. This would cause a shock-wave of sorts to go to the ribs of the competitor and clearly cause enough pain to win the match for Nikki.

This move does have consequences for Nikki Bella however, as she would take a lot of force on her neck and back with this injury; that is not even mentioning the knees, which she also had an issue with.

Nikki reportedly went to see a neurologist this past Tuesday about her neck issue and she was told that the bulging discs in her neck have not gone down. The thought was that they would eventually subside and that an operation would not need to take place to remove or repair anything.

She has been told to do rehab for at least seven more weeks, and after she will get an MRI. If nothing changes at that point, Nikki Bella may have to go under the knife to repair the problem.

It was confirmed that Nikki’s repeated use of her finisher seemed to be the root cause of the injury, and the neurologist was shocked to learn that Nikki had been using the move for five nights a week at both televised and live events. This most likely means this move is a thing of the past for Nikki’s move-set as it clearly causes too much harm for her to continue to use it on a regular basis.

Many pro-wrestlers have had to change their style after severe injuries, and others had to stop using moves for one reason or another. Usually independent workers who come into WWE have some moves banned. For example, Sami Zayn cannot use the turnbuckle brainbuster move that he popularized as El Generico on the independent scene.

It might seem like a new concept for a person to be forced into not using a move for their own safety and not the safety of another worker they would be doing the move on, however even this has occurred in the past. Carlito had similar issues with his backstabber move as the move eventually caused back issues for him and it forced him into not using the move as often.

The problem for many workers is that they are known for a move after a while and are put into a bad position where they have to continue the move for fans, even if the move is dangerous for them to execute. Sometimes a move becomes so huge that you have to do it every time you’re seen, which can cause problems for older performers who are not the most popular of performers but did have a good idea once for a move.

Nikki Bella did use a move that is memorable and she can continue to use the move off and on. However, while she is out she can come up with something that will be much easier on her body to handle. If she does not, the same issue will come up again. WWE won’t allow her to continue to hurt herself. As of now, Nikki Bella’s return to the ring is unknown and we won’t know anything on it for at least two months or so.

[Image via WWE]