One of Nelly's fans tried shooting her shot and pulling him into her orbit -- and she succeeded ... 'cause she yanked him off stage, and then got a pass for doing it.
The rapper was performing Saturday night at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage just outside of Palm Springs, CA when he wandered near the front of the stage to touch his adoring fans' hands ... which backfired with a tumble into the front row.
TMZ got video of the incident, and you can see that Nelly gets tugged from the crowd. He topples into the barricades and then has words with the alleged culprit ... a woman. It seems like he was pretty ticked at first -- but quickly changed his attitude to merciful.
Once he got back onstage, he tells the lady ... "You can't pull me, shorty. I appreciate it -- but I'm on the edge of the stage. If you pull me, I ain't got nowhere to go!" Indeed.
Luckily for her, Nelly acknowledged the act seemed to be more out of love rather than malicious. He told security to leave her be, and carried on with the show.
Dilemma averted!!!