Carmella (Wrestler)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Carmella

• Professional wrestling runs in Carmella’s blood, as her father, Paul Van Dale, is a former independent circuit wrestler. He even appeared on WWE (then WWF) for a brief period, working as a jobber/talent enhancer, whose job was to put over younger guys in order to make them fan favorites.

• Before becoming a pro-wrestler, Carmella worked as a cheerleader for the American Football team- New England Patriots. In addition, she appeared as a Los Angeles Laker (LA Lakers) girl from 2010-2011.

• Interestingly, ‘Leah Van Dale’ is not the first “Carmella” to step foot inside a WWE ring. Before her, came Carmella DeCesare in 2004, the winner of the WWE Diva search competition. However, she did not possess the talent as today’s Carmella, due to which the company bid her adieu after a brief stint.

• Interestingly, she once worked as a backup/background dancer for Rihanna during the latter’s world tour. With this “feat” she became the third WWE Diva, after Naomi and Lana, to have previously worked as a backup dancer.

• The WWE creative initially had no plans to push Carmella as a full-time wrestler. She would have continued with her chore of managing team SAWFT – Enzo Amore and her boyfriend Big Cass – had “The Game”, Triple H not intervened. In an interview, Carmella revealed that Triple H told her that she had a lot of potential which was being wasted every time she entered the NXT ring as a manager. As a result, she was promoted and drafted to SmackDown.

• Carmella is very popular on social media. She has over 1 million followers on Instagram and over half a million followers on Twitter.

• She is the winner of the first ever Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match (2017).

• Even before coming to the WWE, Carmella found a place on the cover page of many popular health-fitness magazines like Esquire, Maxim, Fitness, etc.

• She is very good friends with fellow wrestler, Bayley.