Carmella’s wrestling career appears to have reached its conclusion.
Leah Van Dale confirmed on the September 1 edition of her Hot Mom Shit podcast that she considers herself retired from professional wrestling. While discussing how her relationship with husband Corey Graves has changed now that they no longer work together, she stated plainly that she is retired and “can’t wrestle anymore.”
That sentence closes the door on a comeback Carmella once openly hoped to make.
And it provides an appropriate moment to reconsider a WWE career that was probably better than it tends to receive credit for.
Because Carmella was never presented as the greatest wrestler of her generation.
She didn’t need to be.
What she became was one of WWE’s most adaptable performers.
From Enzo and Cass to standing on her own
Carmella’s earliest identity was connected to Enzo Amore and Big Cass in NXT.
It would have been easy for that to define her.
Instead, her eventual separation from them became the beginning rather than the end of her career.
By the time Carmella reached SmackDown, she had developed a character that could generate reactions independently. The exaggerated confidence, moonwalking entrance and “Princess of Staten Island” presentation gave WWE something immediately identifiable.
There was nothing subtle about Carmella.
That was part of the appeal.
Professional wrestling has always benefited from performers who understand that character clarity matters. The audience should know who you are before you’ve spoken for ten minutes.
Carmella understood that.
And then came Money in the Bank.
The first Ms. Money in the Bank
Carmella will permanently occupy a place in WWE history as the first woman associated with winning a Money in the Bank contract.
The original 2017 match ended controversially when James Ellsworth climbed the ladder, retrieved the briefcase and dropped it to Carmella. WWE subsequently vacated that result and held another ladder match nine days later.
Carmella won that one, too.
That second victory mattered.
It allowed Carmella to own the accomplishment herself rather than have the moment permanently defined by Ellsworth’s involvement.
Then she did something even smarter.
She waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Carmella held the contract for 287 days, then cashed it in on Charlotte Flair on the April 10, 2018 edition of SmackDown after Flair had been attacked by The IIconics. One kick later, Carmella was SmackDown Women’s Champion.
It was exactly what Money in the Bank was designed to create.
Opportunity.
Suspense.
And eventually, opportunism.
She made people want to see her lose
That sounds insulting.
It isn’t.
It’s one of wrestling’s oldest skills.
Carmella’s championship reign wasn’t built around convincing people that she was suddenly the division’s most dominant athlete. It was built around her insisting she belonged at the top while everybody else wanted to prove she didn’t.
There is tremendous value in that role.
During an era filled with performers whose appeal was built on athletic credibility, Carmella leaned into being irritating.
She bragged.
She celebrated herself.
She carried herself like the championship proved every criticism wrong.
The audience wanted someone to shut her up.
That’s heel wrestling.
Sometimes we make this more complicated than it needs to be.
She kept finding something new
This is where Carmella’s career deserves more respect.
When one version started losing momentum, she usually found another.
There was the championship heel.
There was her comedic pairing with R-Truth during the height of the 24/7 Championship chaos.
There was the glamorous “Most Beautiful Woman in WWE” presentation.
There were tag teams.
There were championship programs.
And there were stretches where she wasn’t near the top of the division but still found ways to remain useful television.
At WrestleMania 35, Carmella won the second annual WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal, eliminating Sarah Logan last.
In November 2021, Carmella and Queen Zelina defeated Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, holding the belts until WrestleMania 38.
None of those accomplishments individually make someone an all-time great.
Collectively, they demonstrate longevity.
The comeback that never happened
That’s what makes the ending bittersweet.
Carmella last appeared on Raw in March 2023 before stepping away during pregnancy. WWE’s March 6 results list Bianca Belair defeating Carmella in singles competition, while subsequent reporting identifies a March 12 live event as her final match.
She gave birth later that year and subsequently revealed that she had developed nerve damage and drop foot during delivery.
In 2024, Carmella repeatedly expressed a desire to wrestle again. She discussed undergoing physical therapy, dealing with herniated discs and trying to restore function in her foot.
At the time, returning mattered to her.
Not because she believed she had something left to prove to WWE.
Because she wanted to prove it to herself.
Her WWE contract ultimately expired in February 2025. Carmella later explained that she had believed time missed during pregnancy and recovery would be added to the end of the deal, only to learn that her contract had been reinstated beginning in January 2024 and would consequently expire the following February.
Now, more than three years removed from her final match, Carmella has said the words herself.
She’s retired.
A career worth remembering
Carmella probably won’t headline many lists of the greatest women’s wrestlers ever.
That’s fine.
History shouldn’t consist solely of the very best technical wrestlers and the biggest champions.
A wrestling promotion needs stars.
It also needs characters.
It needs people capable of occupying different spaces on the card.
It needs wrestlers who understand television.
It needs performers who can be serious one year, ridiculous the next and somehow remain recognizably themselves throughout all of it.
Carmella did that for more than a decade.
She became the first Ms. Money in the Bank.
She became SmackDown Women’s Champion.
She became a Women’s Tag Team Champion.
She won at WrestleMania.
She worked comedy, championships, partnerships and character reinventions.
And perhaps most importantly, she survived enough creative changes that several completely different versions of Carmella are recognizable to wrestling fans.
That’s a career.
Not every wrestler leaves with the final match they imagined.
Sometimes there isn’t a farewell tour.
Sometimes there isn’t one last entrance.
Sometimes the last match occurs years before anyone realizes it was the last one.
But there is still room for a proper goodbye.
Carmella was money.
And WWE was better for having her.
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