Smackdown Live Superstar Carmella recently appeared on Lilian Garcia's Making Their Way To The Ring. You can see the full podcast above, and submitted highlights below:
Her character:
“Actually Byron Saxton helped me so much with Carmella yes he helped me so much…so I knew when I got the name Carmella I wanted to do like a mafia like mob wife feel because I come from an Italian family and I wanted to like bring that into it um so I started like coming up with all these ideas and I went to him and I was like ok I have this idea like Carmella like Staten Island or actually I didn’t say Staten Island I just said Carmella like mafia whatever and then he’s the one who came up with Staten Island because Sasha was already from Boston so they couldn’t we couldn’t really do it that way so I said ok well I guess I have to learn a New York accent now which um was really fun um but he was like he started like looking at his nails like he just transformed himself into this character and I’m like this this is exactly how I picture her he’s looking at his nails and he’s like ah Paige was the NXT Women’s Champion at the time and we were talking about this promo that I was gonna do in promo class, and he was like “Paige like what is that like a book or something Paige?” and I’m like “Byron yes!” this is this is it just works and like from that point on from that meeting with him I’m like okay I know what I’m doing I know who Carmella is I wrote this whole back story and you know everything about her and now I just like I know who she is and she’s freakin’ fabulous.”
Dating Cass:
“This is hilarious, so people okay so I’m just gonna say this right now people think that I started dating Cass because of the gimmick but Cass and I were together way before the gimmick even started…yes so I we were together basically as soon as I got to NXT and I saw him and I’m like oh my gosh this is the most handsome man I’ve ever met in my entire life and I was obsessed with him and we just like you know the rest is history.”
How she and Cass started working together:
“I started this Carmella thing and then they randomly um actually Enzo was injured at the time in NXT he had broke his ankle so they were just booking Cass in singles matches on the live events and they were like maybe we can put Carmella with him because I was like wearing leopard print like that was just that’s what I was doing with my character so they ended up putting me with him on live events as his like little you know manager while Enzo was out um and they were like okay this is kinda cool, this is working and then Enzo came back so then I’m like ok well now I’m back to the sidelines again which was fine um and then I just started doing my own thing on live events I was wrestling.”
Not getting called up initially:
“I was devastated I really was, um it was right around this time last year it was right after TakeOver and I had been on the road with them we were going and doing loops for you know um the main roster, and I was with them every single time they even did a Pay Per View they did Roadblock um on the main roster and I was always with them so to me I was just thinking oh this is a package deal and everyone was telling us this was a package deal package deal, and ah so I’m thinking ok this is cool like I’m excited. And then the night of um TakeOver last year Hunter had pulled the boys aside to tell them that they were going up and then I had already gone on the bus to leave and then someone came on the bus and was like oh um Hunter wants to talk to you and I’m thinking oh my God this is it, like we’re going up like I was so excited, so I got pulled up and it was just me and the boys weren’t there so I’m thinking ok this is weird..and Cass, I had seen him like I walked past him to go and he was just kinda look and I just knew at that moment the way he was looking at me so I got into the room with um Hunter and Matt Bloom and he said okay so I just ah wanna let you know ah Cass and Enzo are they’re going up on Monday and you will not be going with them and I did everything I could not to cry for so many different reasons a.) because this is my boyfriend and I spent the last almost like two and half years with him um and now I’m losing him was like my first thought and then second I’m thinking well then what am I gonna do like this is all I’ve known being in wrestling was being with them my whole gimmick was around them they said bada boom realest guys in the room I said bada bing hottest chick in the ring that was like our thing.”
Carmella's dad, former WWF wrestler:
“He did a lot of enhancement work, he wrestled Razor Ramon, Jimmy Superfly Snuka…there’s been so many, Big Boss Man, Papa Shango, so I really did when people say oh I grew up watching wrestling like okay but I really did grow up watching wrestling because my dad watched it every week and I might be making myself sound a little older but we used to record Monday Night Raw on VHS every single Monday night um because he would work nights a lot of the time so we would record it and then when he would get home the next day I would watch it when I got home from school with my dad.”
Who she owes her success to:
“My dance teacher is probably, I’m gonna get emotional talking about it, um but she for sure is like, she was the one, I don’t even know why I’m crying, who saw something in me you know to be what I wanted to be because I didn’t know that I could do anything like being like I said from such a small town and I wanted to be this you know somebody and she saw something in me when I mean obviously my parents did because they’re my parents but she saw something in me that nobody else did and I was you know ten, eleven years old and she invested all of her time, all of her any spare time in me to help me like blossom and I was like you know this star of the studio you could say or whatever it is but you know I always got the opportunities because she saw something in me and she did whatever she could to help me and I owe so much to her.”
