At Sunday night's WWE SummerSlam event, Nikki Bella made her return to the company to step in as the replacement tag team partner for Natalya and Alexa Bliss in the Six-Woman Tag Team Match against Becky Lynch, Naomi, and Carmella.

Nikki stepped into the match due to the recent 30-day suspension of Eva Marie, who violated the WWE Wellness Policy for the first time. Eva was the one who was originally scheduled to take part in the match.

Nikki's last match with WWE was on October 25, 2015 at WWE Hell in a Cell, which she unsuccessfully challenged Charlotte for the now-defunct Divas Championship, and shortly after this night, she took a hiatus due to a neck injury that required surgery to correct. She has been recovering ever since, but made appearances on WWE programming on two separate occasions: the December 21, 2015 edition of Raw to accept the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year and at WrestleMania 32 to celebrate alongside her sister, Brie Bella, after Brie and her team won a 10-Diva Tag Team Match.