Carmella has looked back on one of the biggest wins of her WWE career and has revealed that it nearly didn’t happen.
As WWE continued to give women’s wrestlers the same opportunities as the men in 2017, June 18th saw the first ever Women’s Money in the Bank match take place. Carmella, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Tamina and Charlotte Flair all battled it out to unhook the briefcase and receive the guaranteed title match on top of being etched into the history books by being the first-ever recipient of the accolade.
In the end, the match was won by James Ellsworth, who unhooked the briefcase and handed it down to the Princess of Staten Island. With the move being met with significant backlash, a rematch was booked on a future episode of SmackDown. This time, Carmella would grab down the briefcase herself and become Miss Money in the Bank.
Recalling the 2 ladder matches while on The Nikki and Brie Show, the former Women’s Champion revealed that the original plan for the rematch was to have Becky Lynch win the briefcase and explained why there was a change:
“I mean, best moment was grabbing the Money in the Bank briefcase (in 2017) of course. Well actually, I didn’t grab it, James (Ellsworth) did and then threw it down to me and that to me was just — I knew fans were gonna be so upset about it, but I felt like that was great because everyone was gonna be talking about it and if it didn’t go like that, because I know originally, it was supposed to be Becky (Lynch). She was winning it the second time. That was the plan.
So we had another match a week later and the plan was for Becky to win it. But, because I came out on the SmackDown after Money in the Bank and I cut a promo — I remember I opened SmackDown that night with a promo and we had physicality later in the night when Bryan (Danielson) was the G.M. and he was supposed to talk about how we’re having another match and the physicality was me on top.
I was supposed to knock everyone out of the ring and because the promo was so good… that they changed all the physicality and so they changed it at the end to where Becky and Charlotte (Flair), I was on the down-and-out and they were up at the end of the night because I ended up winning it again the following week so I’m just so grateful it went the way it did.”
Continuing, the WWE star added that she learned about her victory on extremely short notice and how she reacted to the news:
“Yes (I learned the day of Money in the Bank 2017 that I was winning the briefcase). I didn’t know if I should act excited, I didn’t want to make the other girls feel bad but I also didn’t wanna act ungrateful so I was just not quite sure. We had-had a rehearsal prior to that, I think the day before but we didn’t know what the ending would be so then we showed up that day and we’re kind of talking through things and it was like, ‘And Carmella’s gonna win’ and I’m like, ‘What?’ Like, oh my God. I couldn’t believe it.
I hadn’t even been on the main roster for a year yet. I was just freaking out and I just knew that no matter what, my name would go down in history if I did nothing else in my career.”
Carmella would also be successful with her cash-in as she capitalised on a beatdown from The IIconics onto Charlotte Flair to win her first Women’s Championship.
When Will Carmella Return To WWE?
Off TV since March 2023 as she was pregnant with her first child, Carmella recently revealed that she is dealing with an injury and gave an update on plans to return.
H/t to Post Wrestling.