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Carmella explains what happened during her final months of being under contract to WWE

Aaron Rift

Last month, it was reported that Carmella’s contract with WWE had expired. This week, the Barely Famous podcast published an interview with Carmella. Here is what Carmella had to say about the end of her WWE run…

“A handful of women have gotten pregnant while under contract and basically, they freeze your contract while you’re pregnant. They pay you, which is so incredible. They don’t have to pay you while you’re pregnant, and they paid me, and they’ve paid every woman who has been pregnant before under contract. I’m so grateful for that. I will say, I did offer to work when I was pregnant. ‘Please, I know I can’t wrestle, but let me go on the road. Let me do interviews. I’ll do kick-off shows. I’ll do panels. Let me contribute.’ I didn’t want them to think I was cool sitting at home, getting paid, and not working. They were like, ‘No, stay at home, it’s fine.’ I did, I stayed at home, and they were really cool about it. Usually, what’s happened in the past with women who have been pregnant under contract is they have their baby, they recover, and every postpartum journey is so different. I don’t want to speak on anyone else’s recovery. Mine was obviously a lot more difficult because of the nerve damage with my foot. I let them know the day I had my son, ‘This is what happened, this is what’s going on.'”

“When I had the nerve damage, [my doctor] was like, ‘It’ll just resolve in like four to six weeks and you’ll be fine.’ Now, months and months are going by and it’s not getting better. I’m getting all these tests, seeing specialists, and I’ve been in touch with WWE the entire way, telling them what was going on and everything like that. Fast forward until a few weeks ago and I got a call saying my contract was up in 10 days. Basically, what happened was, usually when you’re injured, your contract is on a pause. They take however long the contract is paused, whether it’s during pregnancy, postpartum, or just a regular injury you get in the ring, your contract is paused for a certain amount of time. Then, when you go back to work, however long it was paused for, they tack on to the end of the contract. That’s the impression that I was under. Come to find out, the way it worked out, my contract was paused for seven weeks after I had my son and then reinstated. I didn’t know. Nobody told me that I only had seven weeks off after my son and that they were going to reinstate it. I basically had a year left on my contract when I got pregnant. When it was reinstated, January 1, 2024, they just picked that date and that’s the date that it got reinstated, January to the following February, which is where we’re at now, it’s expired, and that’s that.”

“Basically, when I got pregnant, they sent me a letter and they gave me an X amount of days off for being pregnant and then seven weeks post-partum. Basically, they anticipated how long it would take me to recover postpartum. I assume they give this number to all the women who get pregnant. They said in this letter, ‘No matter what, when you return to wrestling, these dates will all change.’ It’s kind of a placeholder date and number and period of time you have off, but when you return, that’s the date we’re going to take and the contract will be frozen for the amount of time you were out. Say I was out 300 days. They’re going to freeze your contract for whatever amount of time, but once I comeback, they would add 300 days back onto my contract. That’s the impression I was under because that’s how it’s worked for other women in the past and that’s how it’s worked when you’re injured or anything. Every woman is so different. Some girls have been out for six months postpartum. Some 14 months, five months, eight months, everyone’s recovery is different. It’s not like you can put an exact timeline on when you’ll return. I was completely shocked they had only given me seven weeks and then reinstated my contract but didn’t tell me. I didn’t go back to work. Even if I was completely healthy and didn’t have nerve damage in my foot, there was no way I was returning seven weeks postpartum.”

“It hurt. It really hurt. I was upset and disappointed. They knew about my injury and I was doing everything in my power to heal and get better. The same day I got the phone call, I was at my spine specialist and neurologist getting different tests and results and talking about options. My foot is getting better, it’s just not 100% yet. The kicker is, I offered to go back to work last summer. I was maybe eight months postpartum and I reached out to the head of everything and I was like — I wasn’t sure he knew I had nerve damage, but I laid everything out for him and I was like, ‘I can’t wrestle, but I’d love to contribute any way that I can. Here is my pitch.’ I had an idea of working with this tag team and being a manager. Carmella is a huge personality and I love talking on the microphone, so let me help another team out. ‘I can’t wrestle, but let me contribute.’ He loved the idea, he put me in touch with the head of creative. ‘Let’s get it going. I can’t wait to see you,’ was what he told me, point blank. I was in touch with creative, they got medical clearance from my personal doctor who said I could travel but not wrestle. Then, radio silence. I didn’t hear from anyone. That was the end of July, I was in the middle of collaborating with them on this.” (quotes courtesy of Jeremy Lambert)

Carmella went on to say that she was “ghosted” by WWE and felt like she was “punished” for having a baby.