Leah Van Dale, formerly known as Carmella in WWE, recently revealed that she and her husband, WWE commentator Corey Graves, were once approached to do a reality television show, but the project ultimately fell apart due to a lack of authenticity and WWE’s creative control. Speaking on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio (scroll down to see the interview), Van Dale detailed the experience, which included staging “cheesy” and “hokey” storylines.
Van Dale explained that after the success of their podcast, Bare With Us, a production company expressed interest in a reality show centered on their relationship. However, because both were employed by WWE at the time, the company had to be involved. “They got involved and because they have to have creative control of everything, unfortunately we can’t just do something on the side if everyone knows us as Corey and Carmella,” Van Dale said. “So they got involved and then we did a short YouTube series called Corey and Carmela, but it was just like, they were just trying so hard to force these storylines.”
A “Hokey” Experience
She described the experience as inauthentic and a missed chance to show their real personalities. “It was more so following what they wanted us to do for these storylines, and it was just so not us,” she stated. “It was sort of an opportunity for us to kind of show who we were outside of ‘Total Divas,’ outside of WWE, but it was just not authentic to us.”
Van Dale shared a specific, “embarrassing” example of a scene that was manufactured for the show. “They had us, we were moving and we had already moved into our new home and they like made us move everything out of the house to make it look like we just moved in,” she recalled. “My brother-in-law had to carry a box of our stuff… and all of these sex toys, quote unquote fell, and then there happened to be a cheese grater in the box with the sex toys. I’m like, ‘This is so embarrassing and so stupid. Do you think we were really have a cheese grater in the box with our sex toys?'”
Despite the failed project, Van Dale expressed that she would still be open to doing a reality show now that she is no longer with WWE. “I would love the opportunity to show who we are now,” she said.
