YES GIRL! Carmella says she pitched working with Pretty Deadly while she was still with WWE.
Carmella, Leah Van Dale, recently spoke with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post about her WWE career and what she’s been up to lately. Van Dale couldn’t return to the ring due to having a post-pregnancy drop foot condition, so she began pitching ideas for her to work in a non-physical role.
One idea that she shared involved her working with Pretty Deadly, Elton Prince and Kit Wilson. The two-time NXT Tag Team Champions are currently designated to the SmackDown brand, and Carmella would have joined them to “save” their storyline musical. She says the team was on board, as well as the head writer on the show.
“I pitched to work with Pretty Deadly, that was my idea. I had reached out to them first and they loved the idea. They were all on board and we came up with all of these different idea and pitches and storylines. I was also talking to the head writer, [sharing] these ideas.
“They [Pretty Deadly] were doing this musical at the time and the musical was gonna bomb and then I was going to come up and show up. It was — I was so excited. I thought it would have been the perfect mesh of all of our characters. I love working with characters — R-Truth and James Ellsworth, just the most ridiculous stuff. To me, the more ridiculous, the better. And [Pretty Deadly] is so all about their characters, it would have worked so well. Everyone was on board, everyone really liked it. So who knows? Maybe someday in the future.”
Carmella said another idea was for her to be part of the musical. She noted that they weren’t sure how it would all work out, but her character would have thrived in that environment.
Carmella was with WWE since 2013. During her tenure, she won the Women’s Money in the Bank match and SmackDown Women’s title, as well as the Women’s Tag Team titles with Zelina Vega. She was absent from television since March 2023, and gave birth to her son, Dmitri, in November 2023. Her tenure ended in February due to WWE allowing her contract to expire.
