Carmella has explained how it’s possible for her to not know that her WWE contract was going to expire.
The female star appeared on the Barely Famous podcast for the first time since the news of her exit from WWE became public. She talked openly about the circumstances leading to her departure.
The former SmackDown Women’s Champion went on a hiatus in March 2013 due to her pregnancy. When asked how the company first reacted to the news, Carmella noted that they were very supportive at the time:
“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 when you’re pregnant, and they paid me, and they’ve paid every woman that’s been pregnant before under contract. I’m so grateful for that.”
These Dates Will Change
The Princess of Staten Island then went into details of why and how it was possible for her to not know that her WWE contract was coming to an end until she got the call from the office. Carmella explained that the standard procedure is for a frozen contract to be reinstated after the star returns to action. In her case, however, the officials decided to reinstate her deal in January 2024, without notifying her:
“Basically when I got pregnant, they sent me a letter and they said that like, they gave me X amount of days off on my contract for being pregnant and then seven weeks postpartum. So basically, they anticipated how long it would take me to recover postpartum. I’m assuming they give this number to all the women who get pregnant, right? But they said in this letter like no matter what, when you return to wrestling, these dates will all change.
So basically, it’s just kind of like a placeholder date and number and period of time that you have off, but when you return to wrestle, that’s the date that we’re actually going to take. That contract would be frozen for that amount of time that you were out.
So like say I was out for 300 days and then like okay, we’re going to freeze your contract for 300 days. Or we’re going to freeze your contract for whatever amount of time, but I was out for 300 days then once I came back, they would add that 300 days back onto my contract. If that makes sense. So that was just 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 if you’re injured or anything. “
Carmella also revealed that she had contact with the company during this period. She didn’t want to be sitting home just collecting her paycheck, so she pitched ideas to be involved in various non-wrestling capacities such as pre-show panelist or manager for a team. Though she was not informed of the change in her contract status even when she let the company know about her postpartum medical issues. She only became aware of it when she was called to inform that her deal will not be renewed earlier this year.
