SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella sat down with WWE.com for a Q&A session, discussing a number of topics including being the last pick of the 2016 WWE Draft, pairing up with James Ellsworth, cashing in Money In The Bank and more:

If Being The Last Pick Of The Draft Motivated Her
“Absolutely! I love that I was the very last draft pick. A lot of fans and other people looked at it like ‘You’re excited? You’re the last draft pick, almost an afterthought.’ In my mind, I was like ‘OK, I’ll show you who the afterthought is.’ It lit a flame under me, just like when I didn’t go up with the boys. It was another motivating factor for me to do my very best and prove to everybody that I was going to do big things, become champion and do all the things they said I can’t do.”

Thoughts On Her First Year On The Main Roster
“When I was in NXT, I never wrestled on a TakeOver. I didn’t have too many high-profile matches, I probably wrestled about 10 matches in total on NXT TV, including the one championship match against Bayley, which was so much fun and my favorite match in NXT.

But, aside from that, I didn’t have much experience. I spent most of my time being a manager. To get up to SmackDown LIVE and have my first match on live TV, I was so nervous. I think the way my first year on SmackDown went was perfect for me. I eased my way into things slowly. I didn’t get these crazy opportunities right away. I wanted to continue to work and improve on live events and figure myself out. I had to make some changes when I split from the boys, but I didn’t let it get me down. I used it as fuel for the fire to get better and reinvent myself, which is how I got to be the moonwalkin’, trash-talking Carmella you see on SmackDown LIVE every week.”

Why She Wanted To Work With James Ellsworth
“He was in the main event picture, wrestling AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. I knew no one would ever see that coming, me using him to get where I wanted to be. That made it fun because no one expected it, and because none of the women have a male manager. It presented a lot of cool opportunities, like wrestling John Cena & Nikki Bella, and my victory in the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, which had everyone up in arms.”

Cashing In Money In The Bank On SmackDown Live
“At WrestleMania, there’s so many big moments, and I didn’t want it to get lost. I wanted everyone to be talking about it. The SmackDown after was the perfect opportunity. Charlotte did the impossible and broke Asuka’s streak. The WrestleMania Week crowd is such a special vibe. Plus, my parents and family were there. I wanted them to see it. It was perfect.”

For the full, in-depth interview, you can go here.

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