Carmella Discusses Pressure She Felt To ‘Be Fit’ As A Wrestler

Before she joined WWE, Carmella was a ballet dancer and NFL cheerleader. 

Being a cheerleader, and then entering WWE, comes with pressure to look a certain way and be a certain size. 

Speaking to Tayler Adidun of Yahoo Life, Carmella discussed the pressure of being fit in the sports and entertainment world. 

“There’s a lot of pressure to look your best and be fit and healthy, and I think I was sort of doing it more in an unhealthy way. When I look back, I realize I was just so strict with my diet and restricted myself from eating anything and everything that wasn’t vegetables, fruit and lean meats, and that’s just sort of how I lived my life,” she said. 

Joining WWE in 2013 came with similar pressure that carried over. 

“When I started out, I had so much pressure like ‘I have to be fit, I want to have a six-pack, I need to keep this up.’ I mean as a wrestler, you need to have a specific physique and look a certain way, and that’s kind of what set me apart too is I always had a defined body and things like that. I tried to keep that up. For a long time I was always lifting heavy weights and tearing my body apart on the road with wrestling. Then when I’m home, I’m lifting weights, and I was just feeling so weak, my body was hurting so much. I did it just because that was what I thought I needed to do because I wanted to project this image. I want everyone to know that I’m fit and I’m healthy and I have a six-pack and things like that,” she said.

Now, Carmella doesn’t hold herself to unrealistic standards. 

“I look back and I kind of laugh at it because at the point I’m at now I do it for all the right reasons and not because I want people to perceive me a certain way. At this point in my life, I never weigh myself anymore. I do not care about that. I’ve finally gotten to a point where I don’t want to restrict my diet. I don’t want to tell myself I can’t have something. And I feel like now this is the best I’ve ever looked and the best I’ve ever felt because I just am doing what’s right for me and eating intuitively,” she says.

Carmella competed inside the Elimination Chamber at WWE Elimination Chamber, making it to the final two before losing to Asuka. 

She is set to face Asuka on the February 27 episode of WWE Raw.