WWE superstar and former SmackDown women’s champion Carmella was a recent guest on the Bellas podcast to discuss a number of different topics, including her main event feud with Sasha Banks, reimagining her character, and how she believes WWE could still feature their women more. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says people should know how WWE goes by this point:
“It’s…you know how this place goes. People that don’t work here, it’s hard to explain. Of course I’m grateful I have a job, I’m grateful I work for this amazing company. But last summer I just was off TV for four or five months. I just sat at my home, twiddling my thumbs. What am I doing? There was no rhyme or reason for why I was at home, I was just told ‘we’re going to wait to bring you back and do a different story.’ And then I kind of revamped my character a little bit, which is cool. It’s nice to get a new coat of paint. Then I came back, had this awesome story with Sasha, felt like I totally delivered.”
Says she thought she delivered in her feud with Sasha and yet she remained off television:
“We had great matches, great promos. I just felt very, very happy, felt like I proved myself. And then it’s like nothing (laughs). So there’s really no reason. I mean, well, I actually wasn’t cleared for a little while after our match at the Royal Rumble. I dove out of the ring, and I was actually talking to Johnny (Laurinaitis) about it. I just jacked my back up. So I wasn’t cleared for physicality. But you know, I could still be in the storyline. But it just didn’t work out and I just kind of sat around, after what I thought was a great feud. You just have to wait your turn.”
Thinks the women could still be featured more in WWE, specifically on Raw:
“I would sit at home and watch RAW, and it would be 10 p.m. before I’d see a woman on the show. And it’s like ‘this is a three hour show. What the hell?!’ Even if I’m just a fan, which I am. Like if I didn’t work at WWE and I’m just sitting at home watching, I want to see the women. That’s why I tune in. Not that I don’t like the guys, but I tune in because I want to see the women. And if I’m waiting till 1o p.m. to see a girl it’s like ‘what the hell?’ That’s not okay for little girls at home or whoever that’s waiting for the women. It just feels like, now there’s only a focus on maybe two women, or one women’s storyline. Back when you (Nikki) were there, we had three women’s storylines on a two hour show. And that’s when I was still with James, so it’s like you and Nattie I believe, and Alexa and maybe Mickie and Becky. So we had three storylines and I was doing my thing with James, so we had four women’s storylines. So we know it’s a possibility. We know they’re capable of doing that. I think just sometimes there’s like this weird shift and people kind of forget. And then it’s like we need to remind them ‘no, we are a big part of the show. We don’t have to have matches every week. We can do promo segments or backstage segments. Even a 30 second insert into the show just to show ‘hey, here she is. She’s represented on the show.’ And then if people are talking about, okay next week maybe we give her a long segment because people want to see that. Whether it’s me or whoever it may be. And I think now, especially because we don’t have a live audience we’re going based solely off social media and who’s trending that week. You know what I mean?”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)