Carmella On Why Triple H Split Her From Enzo and Big Cass, Having A Stalker, Dating Big Cass, Joining WWE

In her first podcast interview, Carmella appeared on Lilian Garcia’s Making Their Way To The Ring.

“The Princess of Staten Island” talked about being split from Big Cass and Enzo, how she got in WWE, competing at WrestleMania, having a stalker and more. Highlights from the interview are as follows.

Her first WrestleMania moment:

“Gosh I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t emotional like I was trying so hard to just hold back the tears and just be in the moment and look around and be like holy crap like if you told me last year I was watching in the crowd just with all of our NXT people and uh watching it I would have never in a million billion years thought I would be wrestling for the title at Wrestlemania this year, I would’ve told you no way.”

Being split from boyfriend Big Cass:

“I get home on Wednesdays and he leaves on Fridays so we have all day Wednesday, all day Thursday and then sometimes he’ll randomly get like a Friday off here and there, but we’ve gotten used to it, at first it was like, ‘okay how do we do this, how do we figure it?’ out but it’s pretty great. I mean, I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t nice to be on the same brand because we could see each other all the time, but then I’d probably get sick of him, he’d probably get annoyed with me because we’re so opposite in so many ways. Like he’s like a night owl and I like to go to bed and we just have our own ways of doing things. But it’s so nice to miss him and it’s so nice like when I get home on Wednesdays when he picks me up from the airport. It’s just so nice like we have our few days together and we’ve gotten really good at like texting and like figuring out like what works best for us when he’s on the road and um when I’m on the road. So it’s bittersweet, it’s like either way there’s gonna be an issue but we’ve really worked our way to like figuring out what works best.”

Being on the main roster:

“I feel like I’m so so so blessed, our locker room since the draft has been amazing. All of our girls, we’ve just worked so hard together to build this SmackDown brand of this women’s roster because we didn’t have the Four Horsewomen – we have Becky, which is great – but we didn’t even have a title at first, so we’re like, ‘okay, what are we working towards here? I think a magic, magic, magic moment was that night we had the six pack challenge for the SmackDown title because all of our girls worked so hard and we pulled it together and we that was one of my favorite nights I’ve ever had in life never mind in work, just because that match was so magical. Everyone really pulled together and did whatever they could to make the match the best, and everyone just started crying and teared up because we just had such a magical night it was amazing and the locker room has just been so great. Everyone’s been really so cool.”

How she made a name for herself:

“When I first got my ring name as Carmella I knew I was just going to do whatever I could to create this over ridiculous over the top character that would just help me get my face – and I don’t even know what I’m trying to say, but just get me out there and just show like, ‘OK, wow we need to pay attention to this girl because she has something.'”

Why Triple H didn’t pick her to go to the main roster with Enzo & Cass:

“When Hunter told me he said the reason why you’re not going with them is because you have the ability to make it on your own, you’re not just a hype girl for Cass and Enzo. You’re not, I see more in you, you have more potential and you’re gonna be fine on your own.”

The moment she found out she was going to debut:

“Enzo had this hair vs hair match against Sylvester Lefort in NXT for TakeOver and they needed to film this vignette for him getting this hair removal cream that was gonna take Sylvester’s hair off. So they had that and I remember Cass told me, ‘oh ya, we had to film this stuff tomorrow for this thing and then Bill DeMott came up to me at the Performance Center and said, ‘oh hey, do you know we need you for this shoot tomorrow.’ I’m like, ‘what shoot?’ as if I didn’t know, and he’s like, ‘this shoot for this Enzo and Cass thing.’

“So I just thought it was just I’m like this little extra and I was the chick that provided them with the hair removal cream. I was like this hair dresser they were putting me as, and then I think it was one of the writers that were there to film, he’s like, ‘oh ya, this is important because at the end of the segment that we were filming they ended up spilling hair removal cream on a poodle and the poodle lost his hair and they needed to make sure I got this line in saying, “oh my gosh you guys you’re gonna get me fired.” So they’re like, ‘you need to say that because that’s whats gonna end up building up to your debut. I remember thinking, ‘oh okay,’ and then I just walked away and I like had a heart attack because I was trying to act like it was nothing. I was like, ‘oh okay cool, sure,’ and then I walked away and I was like dying inside thinking, ‘oh my God, I’m gonna debut!’ So I was like freaking out.”

Having a stalker:

“I had like this crazy stalker. When I first moved out [to LA] I had nowhere to go. Like, I had nowhere to go so I was just staying in a car. Maybe about a week or so, so it wasn’t crazy but um… or like staying on my friend’s couch or like living off of you know Easy Mac and just like whatever I could do to just try to get by. Then like I said when I was living out there, I did have this crazy stalker at the time but nothing came of it. But I ended up first like they hacked into my phone and my everything and I ended up going to the police because at the time… so I literally just made the cover of the Lakers Girls calendar, which was kind of a big deal because they only had two calendars, I was like the cover girl or whatever. The day after was when I had like got these phone calls from this guy that was stalking me and so I went to the police in LA and I’m like, ‘so I just got the cover of this calendar.’ I was afraid I was going to lose my job because this guy was just like being crazy and they were like, ‘mam, this is LA, we can’t do anything for you.’ So I was like okay… it was just like it was like it was nothing… I’m knocking on wood I have not heard from him or anything.”

Transitioning from cheerleading for the New England Patriots and dancing for the L.A. Lakers to becoming a wrestler:

“So when I was living in LA, first of all I had actually tried out or submitted to be on Tough Enough when I was living in LA and then I ended up getting like a few call backs, but because I had just moved out there for the Lakers, I just felt like I couldn’t have done both. Like, they wouldn’t have let me so I had to just stay with the Lakers because that was why I moved out there. So I did the Lakers and then Tough Enough went by and I didn’t really think much of it again.

“When I was done with the Lakers, I had an agent that I used for dance and like dance gigs and things like that, and they had just randomly told me about this opportunity. They said they couldn’t say the company and they couldn’t say what it was for, but it was something like if you had experience in any sort of boxing or this and that, and I had boxed all the time and [an] athletic background, I’m thinking, ‘okay well whatever this is I know I’d be great at it because I have an athletic background and I know about boxing.’ So I was like, ‘OK, let me see,’ and then they ended up telling me it was for WWE. I’m like, ‘okay well I need to do this because my dad was a wrestler and this could be like the most perfect opportunity for me because I didn’t know what I was gonna do after dance because dance wasn’t a life long career. You know, like you can only do so much with it and I felt like I had done everything I could with it and dance will always be my first love because I’ve done it for like 22 years. But I just thought, oh my gosh this is the most perfect opportunity because I love performing, I love being in front of a live crowd, that’s my favorite thing like I thrive off of it. With my background in dance and then with my background with my dad when I found out about this I ended up just getting to go meet with [Ceman] Canyon.”