WWE & ESPN on-air personality Charly Caruso was today’s guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia. Caruso opened up on a number of topics including her own difficulties with her parents’ divorce, relationships, and her time in WWE.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On The Dangers Of Working In West Virginia:
I was just all over the place. Then after college I went to West Virginia: Huntington and Charleston, West Virginia. I was a one man band news reporter, so I had to carry my tripod and camera all over the place by myself, which in West Virginia sometimes you run into some sticky situations. Not to put down West Virginia, but it was definitely a culture shock coming from DC, going to West Virginia. It’s just a very different experience there. There’s a lot of poverty. You almost feel like it’s a little rougher and a little backwards, in a sense.
I would just be sent on these assignments by myself and looking back I can’t believe I was put in situations like for example, it would be dark out, it would be nighttime and they’d say, ‘Hey, we need you to go knock on all the doors in this neighborhood and try to find out information about this murder. Try to interview the family of someone who was just murdered.’ Looking back, that was a very unsafe situation to put a young girl in. My mom would always be terrified. Back then I wasn’t scared, ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.’ Looking back I’m like, ‘No.’ I was 22.
I remember one time I was doing a story in the middle of the day. It was sunny, beautiful outside and I was doing a story about a community garden, which seems like nothing wrong with it, but I was in a really rough neighborhood and a cop drives past me. He’s like, ‘Are you OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ Like I said, I’m next to a garden in the middle of the day and he said, ‘You really shouldn’t be in this neighborhood by yourself.’ Looking back on it, I’m like, ‘Wow!’ But, I did it, so there’s some extra grit to add to my resume.
There was one other situation where I had to go to a trailer park and a woman just overdosed on bath salts and died and they wanted me to go talk to her family, which you know that’s terrible for anyone to have to go through and you never know what mental state people are in after such serious trauma like this. I had no cell reception. It was bizarre. I was there for 8 months. It was a good experience, but I was not upset to get out of there.
On Working With ESPN:
I’m working with ESPN now, as of the end of September. Right now, I’m a part-time employee, so I’m kind of being used more on an as needed basis. It’s not like I have a set schedule, but am right now hosting their SportsCenter on Snapchat show, which is their social media form of their traditional SportsCenter, which is super fun because it’s super laid back, which kind of has a sarcastic spin to it, which for me is great because I consider myself to have that sense of humor and be a little comedic, which is cool. I’ve been doing the SportsCenter updates, which air on ESPN throughout the day. I’ll chime in with anywhere from 3-4 minutes worth of sports news, with just a brief update and then toss it back to the show that I just interrupted…now that I’m doing both [ESPN & WWE], I’m so busy all the time. It’s pretty exhausting.
On Why She Pursued A Job With ESPN:
I’ve been talking with ESPN for probably a little more than three years now because sports is my background even before I got to WWE. I was talking to them even before I came here but since then I’ve gotten so much more experience. I’m based in New York City and they had a need and all kinds of stars aligned where they were like, ‘We want you to come up to Bristol, CT and we want to talk to you to see if you’re a good fit now.’ It ended up that they liked me and they had a need for someone like me to fill some of these voids and it all just came together and for me it’s great because it allows me to get back into that traditional sports world while still doing sports entertainment. The two jobs go hand in hand so perfectly, so it’s awesome getting to do both. It’s tiring, but it’s awesome.
On Whether A Full Time Gig With ESPN Is A Goal:
No, I won’t say that. I’m always keeping an open mind as far as with what’s possible for me in the future. Who knows? I could one day be hosting a show on the Travel Channel. I don’t know. Whatever opportunities I’m presented with I’ll definitely evaluate and then go from there to do what’s best for me. As far as right now, if I can keep up this WWE and doing ESPN, that’s the perfect scenario for me because I really love both.
On Her WWE Goals:
My immediate goal is just to hopefully eventually do more of the Kickoff Show responsibilities. Maybe work with Jonathan Coachman as a co-host or should he not be available one day, maybe they come to me to say, ‘Hey we’d love for you to host this pay-per-view kickoff.’ That would be awesome. I do the NXT Kickoff Shows now, which I love doing, but there are so few opportunities because we only have Takeovers four times a year, so to get more practice in the panel scenario would be awesome. That would be great and other than that I’m always open to anything. Should they say, ‘We have a new idea for a [WWE] Network series or a digital series we think you could be a good fit for,’ there’s no limit to what I would be open to doing.
On Having More Female Announcers Than In Years Past & Leaning On Renee Young For Advice:
It’s great. It’s nice especially to have, for me, someone like Renee [Young], who I can lean on and say, ‘Hey, you’ve been here for a few more years than I have. What should I do at this point? Or, where should I go? Do you have any advice for me in this situation?’ So, that’s really nice and for me to be able to pass that on to the newer broadcasters….it’s nice to have that support system. Us women will experience things that men will never understand, whether it’s physically, mentally, emotionally, so it’s nice to have people who get it because you can explain it all you want to men sometimes; we’re wired differently, so it’s nice to be able to have that support system and that level of understanding.
Readers may listen to Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia in its entirety below:
