WWE Superstar Carmella Explains Her Personal Style And What She Wants Out Of Wrestling

WWE

It’s been almost a year since Carmella lost the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship at SummerSlam 2018, but while she hasn’t really been back in the title scene since, she’s kept busy and never been far from our TVs. A partnership with R-Truth led her to a Mixed Match Challenge win at TLC, and then into the ongoing WWE 24/7 Championship storyline, which has been one of the most entertaining angles (and certainly the funniest) in WWE this year. She also won the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35, and has given us the Dance Breaks we needed to break up a year that has sometimes felt like a slog. With Spandex got to sit down with Carmella, aka Leah Van Dale, to talk about working with R-Truth, her unique fashion sense, and what’s to come both inside and outside of the ring.

With Spandex: Let me run a theory by you. I think that you and R-Truth are the ultimate winners of the Mixed Match Challenge. Not just because you won the second tournament, but because you’re the only team that forged an ongoing partnership that has given you both so much, even long after the Mixed Match Challenge ended.

Carmella: Totally! It was so cool!

So often when women and men team up in WWE, it feels like the woman is being held back, but you’ve consistently been elevated by working with male partners. Is that something you’ve been careful about

I think it’s so funny because it’s not something that was ever planned. It’s not something that I anticipated. Like in NXT I was a manager, and then I came up and I was with Ellsworth for a while. That I did intentionally, that was my idea. But I never anticipated being partnered with R-Truth. I just like to make the most out of every opportunity that I get. So that’s sort of what I attribute it to.

Obviously you and Truth are really close, but now that multiple women have held the WWE 24/7 Championship, do you regret never going for it when you had so many chances

Yeah, I think everyone was anticipating me turning on Truth and pinning him for the title. And of course it would be cool to have the title, but I would never betray him like that. And I think that’s what everyone is kind of waiting around for. They think I’m going to pull a fast one on him, but I would never do that.

It seems like your friendship with R-Truth means more to you than that title would anyway.

Absolutely! Absolutely, and like if you had asked me around this time last year if I would do that, then yeah totally! But I feel like Carmella’s really turned over a new leaf in the last year and made a lot of changes, so I would never, at this point, do something like that to my friend.

Your character has become so likable, and beloved by fans no matter where you are on the card. Do you think Carmella is a babyface for the long haul now, or can you imagine going back to being a bad guy

Gosh, I honestly I have no idea. I never had a true babyface turn. It’s not like it was something that was done on purpose. I had just lost the title — it was actually right around this time last year at SummerSlam — and Truth kept saying he was going to try to pin me. And then it just… I didn’t really change! I just sort of… Somehow people started liking me! And I lost a little bit of my attitude. I still like to think that Carmella has a pretty big attitude. And I keep that part, obviously, because that’s like my favorite thing about Carmella. But who knows I don’t know what the future holds. I’m not going to say that one day I wouldn’t enjoy turning into a bad guy again, but as of right now I’m totally embracing this. I love being with Truth! It’s so much fun. I feel like I get to do things that most of the women in our division don’t get to do! I get to have fun. Not that the other women don’t have fun, I don’t mean it like that. But I get to be silly, and show a different side of my character, outside of the ring. And that’s what I’m really just having so much fun with.