Emma On Why Emmalina Didn’t Work In WWE

It was a year ago this month when Emmalina finally premiered on Raw, although her makeover from Emma wasn’t quite what fans expected.

After a four-month process of transforming herself into Emmalina, she finally showed fans the results on Raw on Feb. 13, 2017, before pulling the rug out from under them and revealing it was a one-night-only engagement. Emmalina was onstage for about a minute, showing off her new look before announcing that she would be undergoing yet another makeover: from Emmalina back into Emma.

According to a report by Pro Wrestling Sheet, WWE officials really did have big plans for the Emmalina character. But after multiple rehearsals, they felt she couldn’t pull off what they were looking for and nixed it.

Emmalina was intended to be a throwback to the WWE Divas, such as Sable and The Kat. However, her debut was constantly delayed since officials felt that she wasn’t committing enough to the role. They eventually gave up and Emma went back to portraying her previous heel character.

Emma, whose real name is Tenille Dashwood, discussed the Emmalina character, and why it did not work, during an appearance on the Killing the Town with Storm and Cyrus podcast — her first interview since being released from WWE last October. One of the hosts of the podcast, former WWE Superstar Lance Storm, trained her at his wrestling school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

While talking about Emmalina, Dashwood said the gimmick didn’t fit her at all.

“I wish I had more to say [regarding the character]. I don’t know, I guess there was an idea to it and then they kind of realized along the way that it wasn’t for me at all. I am not a Diva,” Dashwood said.

“I am not like that at all, and I just want to wrestle so I think they realized that along the way and said that let’s just have her become Emma, to be herself and be able to bring that back around.”

Dashwood said she was always satisfied with her original character. She said she identified with it more because it matched her real-life personality.

“I’m comfortable doing [Emma],” Dashwood said. “In real life I am a bit of a smart-ass, a bit sarcastic, I like to have fun and joke around, but I also love to wrestle, so I believe it was a combination of everything and it just came out in that character; just move out of the way and let me wrestle.”

While Dashwood never wrestled as Emmalina, we at least know how it would have looked like had she done so.

Last May, WWE.com posted a gallery of unseen studio photos, including this shot of Emma in her Emmalina wrestling attire. The photo was quickly deleted, but not before it began circulating on social media.

What would have been Emmalina's gear pic.twitter.com/7TEfNe5LUP

— mera stan acc (-_•) // 119 DAYS TILL ENDGAME (@ZayniacJack) May 20, 2017