Carmella came up short against Sasha Banks in a SmackDown Women’s Championship match back at the Royal Rumble. And, as confirmed on The Bellas Podcast this week, a botch that occured during that match wound up putting her on the shelf for three months. Fans will likely recall the spot where she dove under the middle rope to try and hit Banks on the outside, but overshot and wound up faceplanting in front of the entrance ramp. She confirmed in the interview she hurt her back on the spot, but still managed to compete in the Women’s Royal Rumble later in the night.
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“Last summer, I was off TV for four or five months, twiddling my thumbs,” she told The Bella Twins (h/t Fightful). “There was no rhyme or reason for why I was at home. I was just told we’re going to wait to bring you back and do a different story. Then, I kind of revamped my character a little bit. Which is cool, it’s nice to get a new coat of paint.
“Then I came back and had this awesome story with Sasha,” she continued. “I felt like I totally delivered. We had great matches, great promos. I just felt very happy. I felt like I proved myself and then it’s like nothing. So, there’s really no reason. Well, I actually was not cleared for a little while after our match at the Royal Rumble. I dove out of the ring… and I just kind of jacked my back up. So, I wasn’t cleared for physicality, but I could still be in a storyline but it just didn’t work out and I just kind of sat around after having what I thought was a great feud. You know, you just have to wait your turn. The world keeps turning. It does suck because then you sit here and question, ‘Well, did I not do as well as I could have? What can I change? What can I do better?’ But you have to realize it’s not anything that you’re doing.”
The former champ wasn’t back in action until the April 2 edition of Raw. She made it onto the WrestleMania 37 card days later after accepting Billie Kay’s offer to become a tag team, though the two wound up losing in the tag team turmoil match on Night One. Kay was released by the company days later.
