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:
Learning about her debut:
“Enzo had this hair vs hair match against Sylvester Lefort in NXT for TakeOver and um they needed to film this vignette for him getting like this hair removal cream that was gonna take um Sylvester’s hair off and 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 came Bill DeMott came up to me at the performance center and said oh hey do you know we need you for this uh shoot tomorrow and I’m like what shoot as if I didn’t know, and uh he’s like oh no this shoot for this Enzo and Cass thing and like okay 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 um 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 I had to say 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 thats whats gonna end up um building up to your debut and I remember thinking oh okay, and then I just walked away and I like had a heart attack cuz 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 there I had no where to go like I had no where 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 friends couch or like living off of you know Easy Mac and just like whatever I could do to just try to get by and then like I said when I was living out there I did have this crazy stalker at the time but nothing you know nothing came of it but I ended up first like they hacked into like 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 Laker Girls calendar which was kind of a big deal because they only had two calendars I was like the cover girl or whatever um and then 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 um 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 uh 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.”
NXT struggles:
"So I think the biggest struggle for me is I wasn’t Charlotte, Sasha, Bailey or Becky, um they had obviously wrestled before, well Charlotte hadn’t but she obviously comes from such greatness with um being a Flair and ah because of that I didn’t have any like history of wrestling or any experience, um so I think that was the biggest struggle to try to like how do I fit in here knowing I’m not one of them but knowing that I do think I have something to offer that’s different, um so to me I just knew ok well I’m never ever ever ever going to be a wrestler like them like be this technical wrestler because I just know that’s just not me a.) my body can’t do that I just know it can’t um, but b.) I know I have something else to offer as far as the personality and I know I can be over the top.”
Transitioning from a cheerleader to wrestler:
“So when I was living in LA, first of all I had actually tried out or submitted um 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 like okay the Tough Enough went by and I didn’t really think much of it again and then when I was done with the Lakers um 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 like experience in any sort of boxing or this and that, and I had boxed all the time because he was a boxer as well and um you know athletic background and 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 like they said boxing so I was like ok let me see and then they ended up telling me it was for WWE and 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 don’t I didn’t know what I was gonna do after dance because dance wasn’t isn’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 twenty two years um 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, and then with my background in dance and then with my background with my dad when I found out about this I ended up just um getting to go meet with Canyon.”
Getting her foot in WWE's door:
“So being from Massachusetts it was only like a two hour drive to the to Stamford so I ended up going to meet with Canyon and I was just I did everything I could to like make sure like a.) I looked my best, I went and got my hair and makeup done which I never done that before in my life so like I went and got all that done like my makeup you know to go pay someone to do my makeup other than like photo shoots and stuff…I wanted to just make sure I was going in there looking my best and I had all my these answers prepared and like he was just like it was so casual like he was just like “hey what’s up?” And I’m like first of all I couldn’t even believe I was at the headquarters it was just insane to be there and I just told myself there’s no way I’m walking out of here not getting a tryout because I can talk as much as I want but I just want to show what I can do and I’m a quick learner I’m a fast learner and um I met with him in January and I just did not stop bugging him until June when I got my tryout and I would go to the boxing gym with my dad and I’d be bumping in the boxing ring which is like not fun at all to bump on because it’s like it was not made for that obviously and uh I would be training in there every single day and just doing whatever I could to just be prepared for the tryout.”
